Climate drivers linked to changing seasonality of Alaska Coastal tundra vegetation productivity

Earth Interactions

Volumn 19, Issue 19, 2015, Pages 1-29

  Bieniek, Peter A ^a   Bhatt, Uma S ^a   Walker, Donald A ^a   Raynolds, Martha K ^a   Comiso, Josefino C ^b   Epstein, Howard E ^c   Pinzon, Jorge E ^b   Tucker, Compton J ^b   Thoman, Richard L ^d   Tran, Huy ^a,e   Mölders, Nicole ^a   Steele, Michael ^f   Zhang, Jinlun ^f   Ermold, Wendy ^f  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS   (United States)

^b NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA   (United States)

^d NOAA EARTH SYSTEM RESEARCH LABORATORY   (United States)

^e UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^f UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

Arctic; Atmosphere2 ocean structure phenomena; Climate variability; Geographic location entity; Land surface; Physical meteorology and climatology; Vegetation

Indexed keywords

CLIMATOLOGY; LANDFORMS; REMOTE SENSING; SEA LEVEL; SURFACE MEASUREMENT; VEGETATION;

ARCTIC; ATMOSPHERE2 OCEAN STRUCTURE/PHENOMENA; CLIMATE VARIABILITY; GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION; LAND SURFACE;

LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE;

ATMOSPHERIC STRUCTURE; CLIMATE VARIATION; CLIMATOLOGY; LAND SURFACE; NDVI; REMOTE SENSING; SEASONALITY; TUNDRA;

ALASKA; ARCTIC OCEAN; BEAUFORT SEA; BERING SEA; CHUKCHI SEA; PACIFIC OCEAN; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84949895066     PISSN: None     EISSN: 10873562     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1175/EI-D-15-0013.1     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. Beck, P. S. A., and Coauthors, 2011: Changes in forest productivity across Alaska consistent with biome shift. Ecol. Lett., 14, 373-379, doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01598.x.
2. Bekryaev, R. V., I. V. Polyakov, and V. A. Alexeev, 2010: Role of polar amplification in long-term surface air temperature variations and modern Arctic warming. J. Climate, 23, 3888-3906, doi:10.1175/2010JCLI3297.1.
3. Benson, C., B. Holmgren, R. Timmer, G.Weller, and S. Parrish, 1975: Observations on the seasonal snow cover and radiation climate at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska during 1972. Ecological Investigations of the Tundra Biome at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, J. Brown, Ed., Biological Papers of the University of Alaska, Special Rep. 2, University of Alaska, 12-50.
4. Berner, J., and Coauthors, 2005: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge University Press, 1046 pp.
5. Bhatt, U. S., M. A. Alexander, C. Deser, J. E. Walsh, J. S. Miller, M. S. Timlin, J. Scott, and R. A. Tomas, 2008: The atmospheric response to realistic reduced summer Arctic sea ice anomalies. Arctic Sea Ice Decline: Observations, Projections, Mechanisms, and Implications, Geophys. Monogr., Vol. 180, Amer. Geophys. Union, 91-110.
6. Bhatt, U. S., and Coauthors, 2010: Circumpolar Arctic tundra vegetation change is linked to sea ice decline. Earth Interact., 14, doi:10.1175/2010EI315.1.
7. Bhatt, U. S., and Coauthors, 2013: Recent declines in warming and vegetation greening trends over pan- Arctic tundra. Remote Sens., 5, 4229-4254, doi:10.3390/rs5094229.
8. Bhatt, U. S., and Coauthors, 2014: Implications of Arctic sea ice decline for the Earth system. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour., 39, 57-89, doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-122012-094357.
9. Bieniek, P. A., U. S. Bhatt, L. A. Rundquist, S. D. Lindsey, and X. D. Zhang, 2011: Large-scale climate controls of Interior Alaska River ice breakup. J. Climate, 24, 286-297, doi:10.1175/2010JCLI3809.1.
10. Bieniek, P. A., and Coauthors, 2012: Climate divisions for Alaska based on objective methods. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 51, 1276-1289, doi:10.1175/JAMC-D-11-0168.1.
11. Bieniek, P. A., J. E. Walsh, R. L. Thoman, and U. S. Bhatt, 2014: Using climate divisions to analyze variations and trends in Alaska temperature and precipitation. J. Climate, 27, 2800-2818, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00342.1.
12. Bjerke, J. W., S. R. Karlsen, K. A. Høgda, E. Malnes, J. U. Jepsen, S. Lovibond, D. Vikhamar- Schuler, and H. Tømmervik, 2014: Record-low primary productivity and high plant damage in the Nordic Arctic region in 2012 caused by multiple weather events and pest outbreaks. Environ. Res. Lett., 9, 084006, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/9/8/084006.
13. Cantlon J. E., 1961: Plant cover in relation to macro-, meso-, and micro-relief. Office of Naval Research Final Rep., Grants ONR-208 and ONR-216, 128 pp.
14. Chapin, F. S., and Coauthors, 2005: Role of land-surface changes in Arctic summer warming. Science, 310, 657-660, doi:10.1126/science.1117368.
15. Cherry, J. E., S. Déry, A. S. Jacobs, Y. Chen, and M. Stieglitz, 2014: Climate and hydrometeorology of the Toolik Lake region and Kuparuk River basin: Past, present and future. Alaska's Changing Arctic, J. Hobbie, Ed., Oxford University Press, 310 pp.
16. Chou, M.-D., and M. J. Suarez, 1994: An efficient thermal infrared radiation parameterization for use in general circulation models. NASA Tech. Memo. 104606, 85 pp.
17. Clow, G. D., 2014: Temperature data acquired from the DOI/GTN-P deep borehole array on the Arctic slope of Alaska, 1973-2013. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 6, 201-218, doi:10.5194/essd-6-201-2014.
18. Comiso, J. C., 2003: Warming trends in the Arctic from clear sky satellite observations. J. Climate, 16, 3498-3510, doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016,3498:WTITAF.2.0.CO;2.
19. Comiso, J. C., and F. Nishio, 2008: Trends in the sea ice cover using enhanced and compatible AMSR-E, SSM/I, and SMMR data. J. Geophys. Res., 113, C02S07, doi:10.1029/2007JC004257.
20. Conover, J. H., 1960: Macro- and microclimatology of the Arctic slope of Alaska. U.S. Army Headquarters Quartermaster Research and Engineering Command Tech. Rep. EP-139, 65 pp.
21. Deering, D. W., 1978: Rangeland reflectance characteristics measured by aircraft and spacecraft sensors. Ph.D. dissertation, Texas A&M University, 338 pp.
22. Dutrieux, L. P., H. Bartholomeus, M. Herold, and J. Verbesselt, 2012: Relationships between declining summer sea ice, increasing temperatures and changing vegetation in the Siberian Arctic tundra from MODIS time series (2000-11). Environ. Res. Lett., 7, 044028, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044028.
23. Epstein, H. E., and Coauthors, 2004: The nature of spatial transitions in the Arctic. J. Biogeogr., 31, 1917-1933, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2004.01140.x.
24. Epstein, H. E., M. K. Raynolds, D. A.Walker, U. S. Bhatt, C. J. Tucker, and J. E. Pinzon, 2012: Dynamics of aboveground phytomass of the circumpolar Arctic tundra during the past three decades. Environ. Res. Lett., 7, 015506, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/015506.
25. Everett, K. R., 1980: Distribution and properties of road dust along the northern portion of the Haul Road. U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory CRREL Rep. 80-19, 1012128.
26. Fienup-Riordan, A., and A. Rearden, 2012: Ellavut: Our Yup'ik World and Weather. University of Washington Press, 354 pp.
27. Grell, G. A., and D. Dévényi, 2002: A generalized approach to parameterizing convection combining ensemble and data assimilation techniques. Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, doi:10.1029/2002GL015311.
28. Haugen, R. K., and J. Brown, 1980: Coastal-inland distributions of summer air temperature and precipitation in northern Alaska. Arct. Alp. Res., 12, 403-412, doi:10.2307/1550491.
29. Higgins, M. E., and J. J. Cassano, 2012: Northern Alaskan land surface response to reduced Arctic sea ice extent. Climate Dyn., 38, 2099-2113, doi:10.1007/s00382-011-1095-0.
30. Hong, S.-Y., and J.-O. J. Lim, 2006: The WRF single-moment 6-class microphysics scheme (WSM6). J. Korean Meteor. Soc., 42, 129-151.
31. Janjić, Z. I., 2002: Nonsingular implementation of the Mellor-Yamada level 2.5 scheme in the NCEP meso model. NCEP Office Note 456, 61 pp.
32. Jia, G. S. J., H. E. Epstein, and D. A. Walker, 2003: Greening of Arctic Alaska, 1981-2001. Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 2067, doi:10.1029/2003GL018268.
33. Kalnay, E., and Coauthors, 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437-471, doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077,0437:TNYRP.2.0.CO;2.
34. Kozo, T. L., 1979: Evidence for sea breezes on the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast. Geophys. Res. Lett., 6, 849-852, doi:10.1029/GL006i011p00849.
35. Kozo, T. L., 1982: An observational study of sea breezes along the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast: Part I. J. Appl. Meteor., 21, 891-905, doi:10.1175/1520-0450(1982)021,0891:AOSOSB.2.0.CO;2.
36. Lawrence, D. M., A. G. Slater, R. A. Tomas, M. M. Holland, and C. Deser, 2008: Accelerated Arctic land warming and permafrost degradation during rapid sea ice loss. Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L11506, doi:10.1029/2008GL033985.
37. Linkin, M. E., and S. Nigam, 2008: The North Pacific Oscillation-west Pacific teleconnection pattern: Mature-phase structure and winter impacts. J. Climate, 21, 1979-1997, doi:10.1175/2007JCLI2048.1.
38. Liston, G. E., and C. A. Hiemstra, 2011: The changing cryosphere: Pan-Arctic snow trends (1979- 2009). J. Climate, 24, 5691-5712, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00081.1.
39. Liu, J. P., J. A. Curry, H. J.Wang, M. R. Song, and R. M. Horton, 2012a: Impact of declining Arctic sea ice on winter snowfall. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 109, 4074-4079, doi:10.1073/pnas.1114910109.
40. Liu, Y., J. R. Key, Z. Liu, X. Wang, and S. J. Vavrus, 2012b: A cloudier Arctic expected with diminishing sea ice. Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L05705, doi:10.1029/2012GL051251.
41. Macias-Fauria, M., B. C. Forbes, P. Zetterberg, and T. Kumpula, 2012: Eurasian Arctic greening reveals teleconnections and the potential for structurally novel ecosystems. Nat. Climate Change, 2, 613-618, doi:10.1038/nclimate1558.
42. Manabe, S., J. Ploshay, and N. C. Lau, 2011: Seasonal variation of surface temperature change during the last several decades. J. Climate, 24, 3817-3821, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00129.1.
43. Matthewman, N. J., and G. Magnusdottir, 2011: Observed interaction between Pacific sea ice and the western Pacific pattern on intraseasonal time scales. J. Climate, 24, 5031-5042, doi:10.1175/2011JCLI4216.1.
44. Melillo, J. M., T. C. Richmond, and G.W. Yohe, Eds., 2014: Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment. U.S. Global Change Research Program, 841 pp., doi:10.7930/J0Z31WJ2.
45. Mlawer, E. J., S. J. Taubman, P. D. Brown, M. J. Iacono, and S. A. Clough, 1997: Radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: RRTM, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave. J. Geophys. Res., 102, 16 663-16 682, doi:10.1029/97JD00237.
46. Moore, G. W. K., 2012: Decadal variability and a recent amplification of the summer Beaufort Sea high. Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L10807, doi:10.1029/2012GL051570.
47. Moritz, R. E., 1977: On a possible sea-breeze circulation near Barrow, Alaska. Arct. Alp. Res., 9, 427-431, doi:10.2307/1550535.
48. Muskett, R., 2012: Multi-satellite and sensor derived trends and variation of snow water equivalent on the high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Int. J. Geosciences, 3, 1-13, doi:10.4236/ijg.2012.31001.
49. Overland, J. E., 2009: Meteorology of the Beaufort Sea. J. Geophys. Res., 114, C00A07, doi:10.1029/2008JC004861.
50. Parent, M. B., and D. Verbyla, 2010: The browning of Alaska's boreal forest. Remote Sens., 2, 2729-2747, doi:10.3390/rs2122729.
51. Pinzon, J. E., and C. J. Tucker, 2014: A non-stationary 1981-2012 AVHRR NDVI3g time series. Remote Sens., 6, 6929-6960, doi:10.3390/rs6086929.
52. Polyakov, I. V., U. S. Bhatt, J. E. Walsh, E. P. Abrahamsen, A. V. Pnyushkov, and P. L. Wassmann, 2013: Recent oceanic changes in the Arctic in the context of long-term observations. Ecol. Appl., 23, 1745-1764, doi:10.1890/11-0902.1.
53. Raynolds, M. K., D. A. Walker, H. E. Epstein, J. E. Pinzon, and C. J. Tucker, 2004: A vegetation map of the Arctic tundra biome (1:1, 750,000 scale): II. Analysis of the distribution of phytomass and vegetation types. J. Veg. Sci., 3, 403-411.
54. Raynolds, M. K., D. A. Walker, H. E. Epstein, J. E. Pinzon, and C. J. Tucker, 2012: A new estimate of tundra-biome phytomass from trans- Arctic field data and AVHRR NDVI. Remote Sens. Lett., 3, 403-411, doi:10.1080/01431161.2011.609188.
55. Santer, B. D., T. M. L. Wigley, J. S. Boyle, D. J. Gaffen, J. J. Hnilo, D. Nychka, D. E. Parker, and K. E. Taylor, 2000: Statistical significance of trends and trend differences in layer-average atmospheric temperature time series. J. Geophys. Res., 105, 7337-7356, doi:10.1029/1999JD901105.
56. Serreze, M. C., and A. P. Barrett, 2011: Characteristics of the Beaufort Sea high. J. Climate, 24, 159-182, doi:10.1175/2010JCLI3636.1.
57. Serreze, M. C., and R. G. Barry, 2011: Processes and impacts of Arctic amplification: A research synthesis. Global Planet. Change, 77, 85-96, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2011.03.004.
58. Shippert, M. M., D. A.Walker, N. A. Auerbach, and B. E. Lewis, 1995: Biomass and leaf-area index maps derived from SPOT images for Toolik Lake and Imnavait Creek areas. Polar Rec., 31, 147-154, doi:10.1017/S0032247400013644.
59. Shulski, M., and G. Wendler, 2007: The Climate of Alaska. University of Alaska Press, 216 pp.
60. Skamarock, W. C., and Coauthors, 2008: A description of the Advanced Research WRF version 3. NCAR Tech. Note NCAR/TN-4751STR, 113 pp. [Available online at http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/docs/arw_v3_bw.pdf.]
61. Steele, M., W. Ermold, and J. Zhang, 2008: Arctic Ocean surface warming trends over the past 100 years. Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L02614, doi:10.1029/2007GL031651.
62. Steele, M., W. Ermold, and J. L. Zhang, 2011: Modeling the formation and fate of the near-surface temperature maximum in the Canadian basin of the Arctic Ocean. J. Geophys. Res., 116, C11015, doi:10.1029/2010JC006803.
63. Steele, M., S. Dickinson, J. Zhang, and R. Lindsay, 2015: Seasonal ice loss in the Beaufort Sea: Toward synchrony and prediction. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 120, 1118-1132, doi:10.1002/2014JC010247.
64. Stegall, S. T., and J. Zhang, 2012: Wind field climatology, changes, and extremes in the Chukchi/Beaufort Seas and Alaska North Slope during 1979-2009. J. Climate, 25, 8075-8089, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00532.1.
65. Sturm, M., C. Racine, and K. Tape, 2001: Climate change: Increasing shrub abundance in the Arctic. Nature, 411, 546-547, doi:10.1038/35079180.
66. Takala, M., K. Luojus, J. Pulliainen, C. Derksen, J. Lemmetyinen, J.-P. Kärnä, J. Koskinen, and B. Bojkov, 2011: Estimating Northern Hemisphere snow water equivalent for climate research through assimilation of space-borne radiometer data and ground-based measurements. Remote Sens. Environ., 115, 3517-3529, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.08.014.
67. Tape, K., M. Sturm, and C. Racine, 2006: The evidence for shrub expansion in northern Alaska and the pan-Arctic. Global Change Biol., 12, 686-702, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01128.x.
68. Tewari, M., and Coauthors, 2004: Implementation and verification of the unified Noah land surface model in the WRF model. Proc. 20th Conf. on Weather Analysis and Forecasting/16th Conf. on Numerical Weather Prediction, Seattle, WA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 11-15.
69. Treshnikov, A. F., 1985: Atlas of the Arctic (in Russian). Administrator of Geodesy and Cartography of the Soviet Ministry, 204 pp.
70. Tucker, C. J., 1979: Red and photographic infrared linear combinations for monitoring vegetation. Remote Sens. Environ., 8, 127-150, doi:10.1016/0034-4257(79)90013-0.
71. Tucker, C. J., and P. J. Sellers, 1986: Satellite remote sensing of primary production. Int. J. Remote Sens., 7, 1395-1416, doi:10.1080/01431168608948944.
72. Urban, F. E., and G. D. Clow, 2014: DOI/GTN-P climate and active-layer data acquired in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 1998-2013. U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 892, accessed 24 January 2015, doi:10.3133/ds892.
73. Urban, M., M. Forkel, J. Eberle, C. Huttich, C. Schmullius, and M. Herold, 2014: Pan-Arctic climate and land cover trends derived from multi-variate and multi-scale analyses (1981- 2012). Remote Sens., 6, 2296-2316, doi:10.3390/rs6032296.
74. Verbyla, D., 2008: The greening and browning of Alaska based on 1982-2003 satellite data. Global Ecol. Biogeogr., 17, 547-555, doi:10.1111/j.1466-8238.2008.00396.x.
75. Walker, D. A., 1985: Vegetation and environmental gradients of the Prudhoe Bay region, Alaska. U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory CRREL Rep. 85-14, 237 pp.
76. Walker, D. A., W. D. Bilings, and J. D. De Molenaar, 2001: Snow-vegetation interactions in tundra environments. Snow Ecology, H. G. Jones et al., Eds., Cambridge University Press, 266-324.
77. Walker, D. A., and Coauthors, 2003: Phytomass, LAI, and NDVI in northern Alaska: Relationships to summer warmth, soil pH, plant functional types, and extrapolation to the circumpolar Arctic. J. Geophys. Res., 108, 8169, doi:10.1029/2001JD000986.
78. Walker, D. A., and Coauthors, 2005: The circumpolar Arctic vegetation map. J. Veg. Sci., 16, 267-282, doi:10.1111/j.1654-1103.2005.tb02365.x.
79. Wallace, J. M., and D. S. Gutzler, 1981: Teleconnections in the geopotential height field during Northern Hemisphere winter. Mon. Wea. Rev., 109, 784-812, doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1981)109,0784:TITGHF.2.0.CO;2.
80. Walsh, J. E., 1977: Measurements of the temperature, wind, and moisture distribution across the northern coast of Alaska. Arct. Alp. Res., 9, 175-182, doi:10.2307/1550579.
81. White, R. G., B. R. Thomson, T. Skogland, S. J. Person, D. E. Russell, D. F. Holleman, and J. R. Luick, 1975: Ecology of caribou at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Ecological Investigations of the Tundra Biome in the Prudhoe Bay Region, J. Brown, Ed., Biological Papers of the University of Alaska, Vol. 2, University of Alaska, 150-210.
82. Xu, L., and Coauthors, 2013: Temperature and vegetation seasonality diminishment over northern lands. Nat. Climate Change, 3, 581-586, doi:10.1038/nclimate1836.
83. Yurtsev, B. A., 1994: Floristic division of the Arctic. J. Veg. Sci., 5, 765-776, doi:10.2307/3236191.
84. Zhang, T., 2005: Influence of the seasonal snow cover on the ground thermal regime: An overview. Rev. Geophys., 43, RG4002, doi:10.1029/2004RG000157.
85. Zhang, T., T. E. Osterkamp, and K. Stamnes, 1996: Some characteristics of the climate in northern Alaska, U.S.A. Arct. Alp. Res., 28, 509-518, doi:10.2307/1551862.