Arctic Greening Marches On
Arctic Vegetation Map (credit: Landsat Science)
In continental scale studies, researchers used more than three decades of remote sensing data to map and track changes in vegetation cover across the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic. Covering more than 4 million square miles, 30% of the Arctic showed increases in vegetation coverage (greening) compared with 3% of the area showing vegetation decreases (browning). A NASA researcher at the Goddard Space Center said:
"the study shows the direct impact of climate change on vegetation in the high Arctic".
Plants are very sensitive to environmental changes so they are excellent predictors of altered rainfall, temperature, and atmospheric chemistry. NASA has been monitoring these factors via a suite of Earth monitoring satellites that have shown the Arctic is warming faster than almost anywhere else on Earth. The region's new temperature regimes have allowed for longer growing seasons, hence more green biomass is now visible. The Agency's researchers have observed grassy tundras becoming shrub covered landscapes with the shrubs becoming larger and more dense.
Satellite mapping continues to gather data to gain further insight on the changing tundra vegetation cover since such changes impact snow cover, wildfires, carbon cycles, and wildlife populations. Expect the Arctic to become ever more green as global heating marches onward. WHB