An international team of scientists has found that amplified greenhouse effects in the Arctic have resulted in northern seasons and vegetation looking more like those of the south.
The nasa-funded study shows that loss of snow cover and sea ice increased Arctic temperatures, and that colder seasons are warming more quickly than the summer. This means decreased temperature and vegetation seasonality in the north — a greener Arctic.
“As a result of the enhanced warming over a longer ground-thaw season, the total amount of heat available for plant growth in these northern latitudes is increasing,” says Dr. Compton Tucker, a senior scientist at nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “This created, during the past 30 years, large patches of vigorously productive vegetation, totaling more than a third of the northern landscape — over nine million kilometers squared.”
These effects may grow more extreme. Seventeen state-of-the-art climate models predict that by the end of the century, Arctic seasons may resemble areas 20° in latitude to the South when compared to the seasons recorded between 1951 and 1980.
These changes could mean loss of food and timber for local communities in addition to global effects, as greenhouse gases are released from thawing permafrost.
The implications could be far-reaching, says Dr. Scott Goetz, deputy director and senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center, USA. “Any significant alterations to temperature and vegetation seasonality are likely to impact life not only in the North but elsewhere in ways that we do not yet know.”
With files from ScienceDaily and Nature
