Buchwal, Agata and Sullivan, Patrick F. and Macias-Fauria, Marc and Post, Eric and Myers-Smith, Isla H. and Stroeve, Julienne C. and Blok, Daan and Tape, Ken D. and Forbes, Bruce C. and Ropars, Pascale and Levesque, Esther and Elberling, Bo and Angers-Blondin, Sandra and Boyle, Joseph S. and Boudreau, Stephane and Boulanger-Lapointe, Noemie and Gamm, Cassandra and Hallinger, Martin and Rachlewicz, Grzegorz and Young, Amanda and Zetterberg, Pentti and Welker, Jeffrey M.
(2020).
Divergence of Arctic shrub growth associated with sea ice decline.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 117
, 33334-33344
[Research article]
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Abstract
Arctic sea ice extent (SIE) is declining at an accelerating rate with a wide range of ecological consequences. However, determining sea ice effects on tundra vegetation remains a challenge. In this study, we examined the universality or lack thereof in tundra shrub growth responses to changes in SIE and summer climate across the Pan-Arctic, taking advantage of 23 tundra shrub-ring chronologies from 19 widely distributed sites (56 degrees N to 83 degrees N). We show a clear divergence in shrub growth responses to SIE that began in the mid-1990s, with 39% of the chronologies showing declines and 57% showing increases in radial growth (decreasers and increasers, respectively). Structural equation models revealed that declining SIE was associated with rising air temperature and precipitation for increasers and with increasingly dry conditions for decreasers. Decreasers tended to be from areas of the Arctic with lower summer precipitation and their growth decline was related to decreases in the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. Our findings suggest that moisture limitation, associated with declining SIE, might inhibit the positive effects of warming on shrub growth over a considerable part of the terrestrial Arctic, thereby complicating predictions of vegetation change and future tundra productivity.
Authors/Creators: | Buchwal, Agata and Sullivan, Patrick F. and Macias-Fauria, Marc and Post, Eric and Myers-Smith, Isla H. and Stroeve, Julienne C. and Blok, Daan and Tape, Ken D. and Forbes, Bruce C. and Ropars, Pascale and Levesque, Esther and Elberling, Bo and Angers-Blondin, Sandra and Boyle, Joseph S. and Boudreau, Stephane and Boulanger-Lapointe, Noemie and Gamm, Cassandra and Hallinger, Martin and Rachlewicz, Grzegorz and Young, Amanda and Zetterberg, Pentti and Welker, Jeffrey M. | ||||||
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Title: | Divergence of Arctic shrub growth associated with sea ice decline | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 117 | ||||||
Page range: | 33334-33344 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 11 | ||||||
Publisher: | NATL ACAD SCIENCES | ||||||
ISSN: | 0027-8424 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 105 Earth and Related Environmental Sciences > Climate Research | ||||||
Keywords: | tundra shrubs, sea ice, Arctic, shrub rings, divergence | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-110272 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-110272 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 21795 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Ecology (S) > Dept. of Ecology | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 29 Jan 2021 14:23 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 29 Jan 2021 14:31 |
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