Seasonality of the Atmosphere-ocean-ice-terrestrial Environment of Arctic Tundra

Type:

Poster

Uma S Bhatt¹, Donald A Walker², Martha Raynolds³, Howard Epstein⁴, Gensuo Jia⁵, Josefino Comiso⁶, Jorge Pinzon⁷
¹Atmospheric Sciences & Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 603 Koyukuk Dr, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, Phone 907-474-2662, Fax 907-474-7290, usbhatt [at] alaska [dot] edu
²University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, dawalker [at] alaska [dot] edu
³University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, mkraynolds [at] alaska [dot] edu
⁴University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA, hee2b [at] virginia [dot] edu
⁵Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, N.T., China, jiong [at] tea [dot] ac [dot] cn
⁶NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, MD, USA, Josefino [dot] C [dot] Comiso [at] nasa [dot] gov
⁷NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, MD, USA, jorge [dot] e [dot] pinzon [at] nasa [dot] gov

The strength of tundra productivity trends over the 1982-2008 period, as measured by the annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (MaxNDVI) and time integrated NDVI (TI-NDVI), have generally increased throughout the Arctic but vary in strength regionally. The climatological annual cycle of sea-ice concentrations, and ocean and atmospheric temperatures also display distinct regional variations that may in part explain the spatially varied trends of vegetation greenness.

Changes in MaxNDVI are much greater in North America (9% increase) than Eurasia (2%). MaxNDVI has increased in the 50-km land domain contiguous to the Beaufort Sea by 17% since 1982 whereas it has only increased by 3% in coastal the Kara Sea region.

In Eurasia, Baffin Bay and the Canadian Archiepelago the MaxNDVI increases are most pronounced in the early part of the warm season, whereas in the Beaufort and Davis Straits the largest increases coincide with the the summer peak. The stronger spring greenup trends in Eurasia are likely associated with spring sea ice decreases whereas in the Beaufort and Davis Straits, the timing of 50% ice concentration is later by several weeks.

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National Science Foundation	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration	International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere
Study of Environmental Arctic Change	Arctic System Science Program	US Arctic Research Commission
North Slope Science Initiative	International Arctic Science Committee	Arctic Ocean Sciences Board
Alaska Ocean Observing System	Department of Energy	National Aeronautics and Space Administration
WWF	Association of Polar Early Career Scientists	Bureau of Land Management
International Study of Arctic Change	ArcticNet	Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies

Seasonality of the Atmosphere-ocean-ice-terrestrial Environment of Arctic Tundra

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