How Arctic Vegetation is Changing

Arctic tundra in fall color.

Plant communities in the Arctic are changing, which can have important impacts on the species that live there and even how those Arctic ecosystems function. Science tells us that plants are sensitve to the warming temperatures currently being experienced across the Arctic. But the resulting impacts of a warmer environment are complex and not uniform, they vary by site location and characteristics and don't always reflect what we'd expect. While existing efforts in vegetation monitoring and experimental research are valuable and useful, we need a more geographically widespread, integrated, and comprehensive monitoring effort to help us understand these changes.

Status and trends in Arctic vegetation: Evidence from experimental warming and long-term monitoring

Abstract

Changes in Arctic vegetation can have important implications for trophic interactions and ecosystem functioning leading to climate feedbacks. Plot-based vegetation surveys provide detailed insight into vegetation changes at sites around the Arctic and improve our ability to predict the impacts of environmental change on tundra ecosystems. Here, we review studies of changes in plant community composition and phenology from both long-term monitoring and warming experiments in Arctic environments. We find that Arctic plant communities and species are generally sensitive to warming, but trends over a period of time are heterogeneous and complex and do not always mirror expectations based on responses to experimental manipulations. Our findings highlight the need for more geographically widespread, integrated, and comprehensive monitoring efforts that can better resolve the interacting effects of warming and other local and regional ecological factors.

Bjorkman, A. D., M. Garcia Criado, I. H. Myers-Smith, V. Ravolainen, I. S. Jonsdottir, K. B. Westergaard, J. P. Lawler, M. Aronsson, B. Bennett, H. Gardfjell, S. Heiomarsson, L. Stewart, and S. Normand. 2020. Status and trends in Arctic vegetation: Evidence from experimental warming and long-term monitoring. Ambio 49(3): 678-692.

Explore more in Ambio 49(3), March 2020: Special Issue: Terrestrial biodiversity in a rapidly changing Arctic.