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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Northern High Latitudes
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Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Northern High Latitudes

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosphere/Hydrosphere/Land–Atmosphere Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 12027

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Wenxin Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
Interests: soil thermal regime; vegetation dynamics; biophysical properties of vegetaton; land surface models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Anna Dabros

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Land Reclamation/ Remise en état des terres; Natural Resources Canada/ Ressources naturelles Canada; Canadian Forest Service/ Service canadien des forêts; 580 Booth street, 580 rue Booth, Ottawa, ON K1A 0E4, Canada
Interests: plant responses to oil sands disturbances; application of ecosystem based management in the oil sands reclamation practices; effects of climate change on boreal ecosystems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The physical environment in the northern high latitudes, including the Arctic cryosphere, has undergone dramatic changes due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas warming, which since pre-industrial times has been twice or more the rate of global mean warming. These changes include tundra shrubification, northward and upward shifts of tree-lines, unprecedented decline of sea ice thickness and areal extent, permafrost thawing and earlier melting of snow cover, etc. These changes may trigger biogeophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks to amplify or dampen regional and global warming.  This motivates studies to assess how land surface properties and ecosystem biogeochemistry will evolve under present and plausible future warming, and how land surface feeds back to the climate system by affecting the climate, carbon cycle, and sea ice. Therefore, these studies provide a robust baseline for understanding and characterizing land surface feedbacks to the Arctic climate system.

This Special Issue is focused on papers that contribute to an improved understanding of climate–vegetation interactions impacting the regional Earth system over the Arctic and northern high latitudes. Examples of particularly interesting topics include (not an exhaustive list):

  • Vegetation (phenological and physiological) responses to warming
  • Changes in land surface properties (vegetation fraction cover, albedo, roughness) linked to ecosystem responses to warming
  • Feedback chain mechanisms, such as, vegetation–climate–sea ice, or permafrost–ecosystem–climate, soil moistures–ecosystem–climate, etc.
  • Atmospheric advection and transport of heat and moisture to/from the high latitudes
  • Ecosystem responses to warming associated with changes in variabilities (seasonal and interannual) of climate and atmospheric CO2/CH4 concentration

This call solicits process-level studies based on both observations and model simulations. This includes intensive observational field campaign studies, long-term in situ observatories, satellite observations, and simulations from plot-scale process-oriented models or regional/global Earth system models. Studies that review or synthesize recent advances in understanding role of climate–vegetation interactions in the Arctic climate system are also encouraged.

Dr. Wenxin Zhang
Dr. Anna Dabros
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Arctic climate change
  • Permafrost thawing
  • Vegetation change
  • Biogeophysical feedback
  • Biogeochemical feedback
  • Greenhouse gases emissions
  • Sea ice
  • Feedback mechanisms

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 3010 KiB  
Article
N/P Addition Is More Likely Than N Addition Alone to Promote a Transition from Moss-Dominated to Graminoid-Dominated Tundra in the High-Arctic
by Charles Gignac, Line Rochefort, Gilles Gauthier, Esther Lévesque, Vincent Maire, Lucas Deschamps, Rémy Pouliot and Mylène Marchand-Roy
Atmosphere 2022, 13(5), 676; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13050676 - 23 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1955
Abstract
Nutrient availability for tundra vegetation could change drastically due to increasing temperatures and frequency of nitrogen deposition in the Arctic. Few studies have simultaneously examined the response of plant communities to these two pressures over a long period. This study aims to assess [...] Read more.
Nutrient availability for tundra vegetation could change drastically due to increasing temperatures and frequency of nitrogen deposition in the Arctic. Few studies have simultaneously examined the response of plant communities to these two pressures over a long period. This study aims to assess which driver between increasing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability through global warming and increasing N availability alone via N deposition is more likely to transform arctic wetland vegetation and whether there is a time lag in this response. An annual fertilization experiment simulating these nutrient inputs was conducted for 17 years in the Canadian High-Arctic to assess the impact on aboveground net primary productivity, floristic composition, and plant nutrient concentration. While the primary productivity of mosses remains unchanged by fertilization after 17 years, productivity of graminoids was increased slightly by N addition (36% increase at the highest dose). In contrast, the primary productivity of graminoids increased strongly with N/P addition (over 227% increase). We noted no difference in graminoid productivity between the 2nd and 5th year of the experiment, but we observed a 203% increase between the 5th and 17th year in the N/P addition treatments. We also noted a 49% decrease in the total moss cover and an 155% increase in the total graminoid cover between the 2nd and 17th year of N/P addition. These results indicate that the impact of warming through increased N/P availability was greater than those of N deposition alone (N addition) and promoted the transition from a moss-dominated tundra to a graminoid-dominated tundra. However, this transition was subject to a time lag of up to 17 years, suggesting that increased productivity of graminoids resulted from a release of nutrients via the decomposition of lower parts of the moss mat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Northern High Latitudes)
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20 pages, 4605 KiB  
Article
Identifying Conifer Tree vs. Deciduous Shrub and Tree Regeneration Trajectories in a Space-for-Time Boreal Peatland Fire Chronosequence Using Multispectral Lidar
by Humaira Enayetullah, Laura Chasmer, Christopher Hopkinson, Dan Thompson and Danielle Cobbaert
Atmosphere 2022, 13(1), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13010112 - 11 Jan 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3265
Abstract
Wildland fires and anthropogenic disturbances can cause changes in vegetation species composition and structure in boreal peatlands. These could potentially alter regeneration trajectories following severe fire or through cumulative impacts of climate-mediated drying, fire, and/or anthropogenic disturbance. We used lidar-derived point cloud metrics, [...] Read more.
Wildland fires and anthropogenic disturbances can cause changes in vegetation species composition and structure in boreal peatlands. These could potentially alter regeneration trajectories following severe fire or through cumulative impacts of climate-mediated drying, fire, and/or anthropogenic disturbance. We used lidar-derived point cloud metrics, and site-specific locational attributes to assess trajectories of post-disturbance vegetation regeneration in boreal peatlands south of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada using a space-for-time-chronosequence. The objectives were to (a) develop methods to identify conifer trees vs. deciduous shrubs and trees using multi-spectral lidar data, (b) quantify the proportional coverage of shrubs and trees to determine environmental conditions driving shrub regeneration, and (c) determine the spatial variations in shrub and tree heights as an indicator of cumulative growth since the fire. The results show that the use of lidar-derived structural metrics predicted areas of deciduous shrub establishment (92% accuracy) and classification of deciduous and conifer trees (71% accuracy). Burned bogs and fens were more prone to shrub regeneration up to and including 38 years after the fire. The transition from deciduous to conifer trees occurred approximately 30 years post-fire. These results improve the understanding of environmental conditions that are sensitive to disturbance and impacts of disturbance on northern peatlands within a changing climate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Northern High Latitudes)
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16 pages, 3439 KiB  
Article
Response of Northern Populations of Black Spruce and Jack Pine to Southward Seed Transfers: Implications for Climate Change
by John H. Pedlar, Daniel W. McKenney, Pengxin Lu and Ashley Thomson
Atmosphere 2021, 12(10), 1363; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101363 - 18 Oct 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1848
Abstract
A variety of responses to climate change have been reported for northern tree populations, primarily from tree-ring and satellite-based studies. Here we employ provenance data to examine growth and survival responses of northern populations (defined here as those occurring north of 52° N) [...] Read more.
A variety of responses to climate change have been reported for northern tree populations, primarily from tree-ring and satellite-based studies. Here we employ provenance data to examine growth and survival responses of northern populations (defined here as those occurring north of 52° N) of black spruce (Picea mariana) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) to southward seed transfers. This space for time substitution affords insights into potential climate change responses by these important northern tree species. Based on previous work, we anticipated relatively flat response curves that peak at much warmer temperatures than those found at seed source origin. These expectations were generally met for growth-related responses, with peak growth associated with seed transfers to environments with mean annual temperatures 2.2 and 3.6 °C warmer than seed source origin for black spruce and jack pine, respectively. These findings imply that northern tree populations harbor a significant amount of resilience to climate warming. However, survival responses told a different story, with both species exhibiting reduced survival rates when moved to warmer and drier environments. Together with the growth-based results, these findings suggest that the warmer and drier conditions expected across much of northern Canada under climate change may reduce survival, but surviving trees may grow at a faster rate up until a certain magnitude of climate warming has been reached. We note that all relationships had high levels of unexplained variation, underlining the many factors that may influence provenance study outcomes and the challenges in predicting tree responses to climate change. Despite certain limitations, we feel that the provenance data employed here provide valuable insights into potential climate change outcomes for northern tree populations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Northern High Latitudes)
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25 pages, 6500 KiB  
Article
Diagnosis of Atmospheric Drivers of High-Latitude Evapotranspiration Using Structural Equation Modeling
by Sarah M. Thunberg, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, John E. Walsh and Kyle M. Redilla
Atmosphere 2021, 12(10), 1359; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101359 - 18 Oct 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1648
Abstract
Evapotranspiration (ET) is a relevant component of the surface moisture budget and is associated with different drivers. The interrelated drivers cause variations at daily to interannual timescales. This study uses structural equation modeling to diagnose the drivers over an ensemble of 45 high-latitude [...] Read more.
Evapotranspiration (ET) is a relevant component of the surface moisture budget and is associated with different drivers. The interrelated drivers cause variations at daily to interannual timescales. This study uses structural equation modeling to diagnose the drivers over an ensemble of 45 high-latitude sites, each of which provides at least several years of in situ measurements, including latent heat fluxes derived from eddy covariance flux towers. The sites are grouped by vegetation type (tundra, forest) and the presence or absence of permafrost to determine how the relative importance of different drivers depends on land surface characteristics. Factor analysis is used to quantify the common variance among the variables, while a path analysis procedure is used to assess the independent contributions of different variables. The variability of ET at forest sites generally shows a stronger dependence on relative humidity, while ET at tundra sites is more temperature-limited than moisture-limited. The path analysis shows that ET has a stronger direct correlation with solar radiation than with any other measured variable. Wind speed has the largest independent contribution to ET variability. The independent contribution of solar radiation is smaller because solar radiation also affects ET through various other drivers. The independent contribution of wind speed is especially apparent at forest wetland sites. For both tundra and forest vegetation, temperature loads higher on the first factor when permafrost is present, implying that ET will become less sensitive to temperature as permafrost thaws. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Northern High Latitudes)
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18 pages, 2706 KiB  
Article
Elevation-Dependent Changes to Plant Phenology in Canada’s Arctic Detected Using Long-Term Satellite Observations
by Wenjun Chen, Lori White, Sylvain G. Leblanc, Rasim Latifovic and Ian Olthof
Atmosphere 2021, 12(9), 1133; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12091133 - 03 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2214
Abstract
Arctic temperatures have increased at almost twice the global average rate since the industrial revolution. Some studies also reported a further amplified rate of climate warming at high elevations; namely, the elevation dependency of climate change. This elevation-dependent climate change could have important [...] Read more.
Arctic temperatures have increased at almost twice the global average rate since the industrial revolution. Some studies also reported a further amplified rate of climate warming at high elevations; namely, the elevation dependency of climate change. This elevation-dependent climate change could have important implications for the fate of glaciers and ecosystems at high elevations under climate change. However, the lack of long-term climate data at high elevations, especially in the Arctic, has hindered the investigation of this question. Because of the linkage between climate warming and plant phenology changes and remote sensing’s ability to detect the latter, remote sensing provides an alternative way for investigating the elevation dependency of climate change over Arctic mountains. This study investigated the elevation-dependent changes to plant phenology using AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) time series from 1985 to 2013 over five study areas in Canada’s Arctic. We found that the start of the growing season (SOS) became earlier faster with an increasing elevation over mountainous study areas (i.e., Sirmilik, the Torngat Mountains, and Ivvavik National Parks). Similarly, the changes rates in the end of growing season (EOS) and the growing season length (GSL) were also higher at high elevations. One exception was SOS in the Ivvavik National Park: “no warming trend” with the May-June temperature at a nearby climate station decreased slightly during 1985–2013, and so no elevation-dependent amplification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Northern High Latitudes)
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