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As Arctic summers warm, Earth’s northern landscapes are changing.
Using satellite images to track Arctic tundra ecosystems over decades,
a new study found the region has become greener.
Greening reflects increasing plant growth. Affecting people, wildlife, and the atmosphere.
Global Change Ecologist, Logan Berner, who led the recent research says:
“The Arctic tundra is one of the coldest biomes on Earth, and it’s also one of the most rapidly warming,”
“This Arctic greening we see is really an indicator of global climatic change”
This study is the first to measure vegetation changes across the Arctic tundra using satellite data from Landsat.
Berner and his colleagues used the Landsat data from 1985 to 2016
to estimate annual peak greenness at 50,000 randomly selected sites across the tundra.
These Landsat data showed greening at about 38% of the tundra sites across Alaska, Canada, and western Eurasia.
This study was part of NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE).
Lead of the ABoVE science team, Scott Goetz says: “Landsat is key for these kinds of measurements”
“There’s a lot of microscale variability in the Arctic, so it’s important to work at finer resolution while also having a long data record
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NASA USGS Science for a changing world.
Landsat is a joint program of NASA and USGS: www.nasa.gov/landsat www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/nli/landsat