Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Sang-Moo Lee, Hoyeon Shi, Byung-Ju Sohn, Albin J. Gasiewski, Walter N. Meier, Gorm Dybkjaer
Summary: This study estimated snow depth on sea ice from 2003 to 2020 using satellite measurements, showing that reliable snow depth can be obtained through this method. It also found a decreasing trend in snow depth across the entire Arctic Ocean, as well as geographical differences in snow depth trends between multiyear ice areas and other regions.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Jiangshan Zheng, Gensuo Jia, Xiyan Xu
Summary: This study analyzed the impacts of snowmelt on spring phenological shifts in high-latitude ecosystems using multiple datasets. The results showed that warmer springs leading to earlier snowmelt dominated the advanced spring vegetation phenology in the region. The responses of vegetation phenology to snowmelt varied among ecoregions and were driven by the changes in soil temperature and soil water content.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Rosemary Willatt, Julienne C. Stroeve, Vishnu Nandan, Thomas Newman, Robbie Mallett, Stefan Hendricks, Robert Ricker, James Mead, Polona Itkin, Rasmus Tonboe, David N. Wagner, Gunnar Spreen, Glen Liston, Martin Schneebeli, Daniela Krampe, Michel Tsamados, Oguz Demir, Jeremy Wilkinson, Matthias Jaggi, Lu Zhou, Marcus Huntemann, Ian A. Raphael, Arttu Jutila, Marc Oggier
Summary: This study investigated methods to estimate snow depth on sea ice using radar, and found that using polarimetry and waveform shape information can provide relatively accurate estimations.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Seung-Kyu Kim, Hee-Jee Lee, Ji-Su Kim, Sung-Ho Kang, Eun-Jin Yang, Kyoung-Ho Cho, Zhexi Tian, Anthony Andrady
Summary: The study revealed that the plastic particles trapped in Arctic sea ice are comparable to those in other Arctic basins, suggesting a strong linkage between the Western Arctic Ocean and the Arctic Central Basin. Additionally, it highlighted the role of the Western Arctic Ocean ice zone as a sink for global microplastics and a potential source for Arctic microplastics.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jennifer J. Freer, Malin Daase, Geraint A. Tarling
Summary: Biological communities in the Arctic are changing due to climate-driven encroachment of subarctic species, with small-bodied Calanus finmarchicus increasing in abundance in areas where it overlaps with larger Arctic congeners. The environmental factors facilitating this shift remain unclear, and assessing these drivers is necessary to predict future ecosystem change and impacts. Our study shows that the Atlantification of Arctic zooplankton communities is accompanied by climate-driven phenology changes, making these environments more favorable for the subarctic species.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Xuanwen Zhang, Bingyi Wu, Shuoyi Ding
Summary: This study investigates the association between spring Arctic sea ice melt and surface air temperature in mid-high latitudes of Eurasia. The results show that there is a dipole pattern in surface air temperature anomalies over Eurasia associated with Arctic sea ice melt. The atmospheric circulation anomaly differs from traditional patterns due to different spatial modes. The study suggests that Arctic sea ice anomalies can influence the atmospheric circulation and lead to temperature variations over Eurasia.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Jihee Kim, Jong-Kuk Moon, Eun Jin Yang, Eunsuk Kim, Seunghee Han
Summary: This study identified seawater as the major source of total mercury (THg) in sea ice and in situ methylation as the potential source of methylmercury (MeHg). The melt flux of MeHg in the Arctic Ocean was found to be insignificant compared to other external sources. However, the ongoing decline of sea ice extent is likely to enhance MeHg production in late spring and summer.
ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Jingwen Zeng, Qinghua Yang, Xuewei Li, Xiaojun Yuan, Mitchell Bushuk, Dake Chen
Summary: This study investigates the potential influence of surface heat flux, cloud, and water vapor anomalies on the monthly to seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice concentration (SIC) anomalies. The results show that models using surface fluxes, clouds, or water vapor in combination with SIC and surface sea temperature as predictors can enhance the skill in predicting Arctic September SIC when initialized in spring. This suggests that including the surface heat budget has the potential to reduce the spring barrier for Arctic SIC predictions.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jacqueline Oehri, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Jin-Soo Kim, Raleigh Grysko, Heather Kropp, Inge Gruenberg, Vitalii Zemlianskii, Oliver Sonnentag, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Merin Reji Chacko, Giovanni Muscari, Peter D. Blanken, Joshua F. Dean, Alcide di Sarra, Richard J. Harding, Ireneusz Sobota, Lars Kutzbach, Elena Plekhanova, Aku Riihela, Julia Boike, Nathaniel B. Miller, Jason Beringer, Efren Lopez-Blanco, Paul C. Stoy, Ryan C. Sullivan, Marek Kejna, Frans-Jan W. Parmentier, John A. Gamon, Mikhail Mastepanov, Christian Wille, Marcin Jackowicz-Korczynski, Dirk N. Karger, William L. Quinton, Jaakko Putkonen, Dirk van As, Torben R. Christensen, Maria Z. Hakuba, Robert S. Stone, Stefan Metzger, Baptiste Vandecrux, Gerald Frost, Martin Wild, Birger Hansen, Daniela Meloni, Florent Domine, Mariska te Beest, Torsten Sachs, Aram Kalhori, Adrian Rocha, Scott N. Williamson, Sara Morris, Adam L. Atchley, Richard Essery, Benjamin R. K. Runkle, David Holl, Laura D. Riihimaki, Hiroki Iwata, Edward A. G. Schuur, Christopher J. Cox, Andrey A. Grachev, Joseph P. McFadden, Robert S. Fausto, Mathias Goeckede, Masahito Ueyama, Norbert Pirk, Gijs de Boer, M. Syndonia Bret-Harte, Matti Lepparanta, Konrad Steffen, Thomas Friborg, Atsumu Ohmura, Colin W. Edgar, Johan Olofsson, Scott D. Chambers
Summary: This study investigates the importance of high-latitude surface energy budgets (SEBs) and the uncertainties in their prediction in the rapidly changing Arctic. By harmonizing SEB observations from vegetated and glaciated sites across the circumpolar region, the researchers identify vegetation type as a significant predictor for SEB components during Arctic summer compared to other drivers. The results highlight the complex shifts in surface energy fluxes with land-cover transitions and emphasize the potential for improving climate projections by considering Arctic vegetation types more comprehensively.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Oceanography
M. A. Webster, A. K. DuVivier, M. M. Holland, D. A. Bailey
Summary: Earth system models are valuable for understanding the Arctic snow-ice system and its responses to a warming climate. The study reveals that CESM2 underestimates snow depth while CESM1-LE produces a highly variable snow cover. The trends in snow depth over the years differ significantly between the two models.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-OCEANS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Laura Stendardi, Stein Rune Karlsen, Eirik Malnes, Lennart Nilsen, Hans Tommervik, Elisabeth J. Cooper, Claudia Notarnicola
Summary: This study aims to assess the seasonal variations of snow using multiple sensors and analyze the sensitivity of SAR to vegetation growth and soil moisture. The results show that radar data can monitor the seasonal variability of snow melting time and have a strong response to graminoid-dominated vegetation in dry areas.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Jie Chen, Qiong Zhang, Erik Kjellstrom, Zhengyao Lu, Fahu Chen
Summary: Understanding the influence of vegetation on temperature changes in the Arctic region is important for understanding the climate system, paleoclimate reconstructions, and future climate change. The study shows that increased vegetation in the Arctic amplifies warming and contributes to sea ice loss, highlighting the significant role of vegetation-climate feedback.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Howard E. Epstein, Donald A. Walker, Gerald Frost, Martha K. Raynolds, Uma Bhatt, Ronald Daanen, Bruce Forbes, Jozsef Geml, Elina Kaarlejarvi, Olga Khitun, Artem Khomutov, Patrick Kuss, Marina Leibman, Georgy Matyshak, Nataliya Moskalenko, Pavel Orekhov, Vladimir E. Romanovsky, Ina Timling
Summary: Field sampling along the Eurasia Arctic Transect in northwestern Siberia showed that aboveground vegetation biomass, NDVI, and LAI all increased with the summer warmth index. Different soil types influenced the spatial patterns of these vegetation properties. Shrub biomass increased non-linearly with summer warmth index, while moss and lichen biomass responded differently to the increase in temperature.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mika Rantanen, Matti Kamarainen, Pekka Niittynen, Gareth K. K. Phoenix, Jonathan Lenoir, Ilya Maclean, Miska Luoto, Juha Aalto
Summary: The Arctic is experiencing the fastest rate of warming among all regions on Earth, leading to increased occurrences of extreme weather events and disturbances to Arctic ecosystems. In order to investigate the changes in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems, a new dataset called ARCLIM has been introduced. This dataset includes bioclimatic indices calculated from hourly ERA5-Land reanalysis data for the northern high-latitude land areas > 45 degrees N, covering the period of 1950-2021. The dataset provides comprehensive information on extreme weather events, climate variability, and the changing bioclimate of the Arctic.
Article
Oceanography
Laramie T. Jensen, Nathan T. Lanning, Chris M. Marsay, Clifton S. Buck, Ana M. Aguilar-Islas, Robert Rember, William M. Landing, Robert M. Sherrell, Jessica N. Fitzsimmons
Summary: The surface waters of the Arctic Ocean include an important inventory of freshwater from rivers, sea ice melt, and glacial meltwaters. Different metals exhibit varying concentrations and impacts as colloids in different cryospheric reservoirs.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-OCEANS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Alyssa R. Cirtwill, Riikka Kaartinen, Claus Rasmussen, Deanne Redr, Helena Wirta, Jens M. Olesen, Mikko Tiusanen, Gavin Ballantyne, Helen Cunnold, Graham N. Stone, Niels Martin Schmidt, Tomas Roslin
Summary: Insects play a crucial role in pollination services, but climate change can impact the interaction between insects and plants. This study investigates the resilience of the high Arctic plant-pollinator network to climate warming. The findings suggest that the pollination ecosystem service in the high Arctic is remarkably resilient, although it heavily depends on a few key pollinators. If these pollinators are negatively affected, the structure of the network and the pollination service would be compromised.
ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Niels Martin Schmidt, Anders Michelsen, Lars Holst Hansen, Marie Ronne Aggerbeck, Mikkel Stelvig, Susan Kutz, Jesper Bruun Mosbacher
Summary: Analysis of stable isotopes in tissue and excreta can provide information about animal diets and nutritional state. Linking stable isotope values to animal demographic rates can help understand the drivers behind population dynamics. Studying the N-15 values in muskox guard hair over a 5-year period in high arctic Greenland, it was found that N-15 values during January-March were critical for muskox recruitment.
RAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Environmental Sciences
Kelsey Archer Barnhill, J. Murray Roberts, Isla Myers-Smith, Mathew Williams, Kyle G. Dexter, Casey Ryan, Uwe Wolfram, Sebastian J. Hennige
Summary: The importance of dead matter in climate change and its role in ecosystem form and function has been overlooked. It is crucial to explicitly include its persistence or degradation in models considering ecosystem futures in a rapidly changing world.
NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Floris M. van Beest, Efren Lopez-Blanco, Lars H. Hansen, Niels M. Schmidt
Summary: Climate change is causing rapid shifts in habitat suitability for cold-adapted mammalian species in the Arctic, as demonstrated by the northward movement of high to medium suitable habitat for muskoxen and the southward movement of low suitable habitat. These shifts have intensified since the beginning of the twenty-first century, coinciding with increased anomalies in temperature and precipitation. The extreme directional changes in habitat suitability for the largest herbivore in the Arctic tundra highlight the importance of gene flow and dispersal capacity in determining local population persistence.
Article
Ecology
Sylvain Christin, Christine Chicoine, Tommy O'Neill Sanger, Melanie F. Guigueno, Jannik Hansen, Richard B. Lanctot, Douglas MacNearney, Jennie Rausch, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Niels M. Schmidt, Paul A. Smith, Paul F. Woodard, Eric Hervet, Nicolas Lecomte
Summary: Tracking changes in biodiversity is crucial for understanding global changes. Recent advances in bioacoustics and the affordability of high-quality automatic recorders have revolutionized studies in biogeography and ecology. The availability of annotated datasets, particularly for arctic bird vocalizations, is limited. Here, ArcticBirdSounds provides an open-access, strongly annotated dataset of arctic bird vocalizations covering two years from multiple locations across the Arctic.
Article
Ornithology
Claire J. J. Branston, Mark J. J. Whittingham, Albert B. B. Phillimore, Dave Leech, Stephen G. G. Willis
Summary: The impacts of climate change on phenology and reproductive investment of birds in woodland habitats with different tree compositions were investigated. The study found that woodland composition did not have a significant effect on the first egg date and clutch size of Blue Tits. However, clutch size has decreased as spring temperatures have increased in recent decades.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Hana L. Sellers, Sergio A. Vargas A. Zesati, Sarah C. Elmendorf, Alexandra Locher, Steven F. Oberbauer, Craig E. Tweedie, Chandi Witharana, Robert D. Hollister
Summary: Plot-level photography is a time-saving alternative for vegetation monitoring, but its widespread adoption depends on efficient post-processing workflows and accurate results. In this study, relative vegetation cover was estimated using both traditional field sampling and semi-automated classification of photographs in Alaska. The results show that plot-level photography can accurately predict the cover of graminoids, but its accuracy is limited for other vegetation classes.
Article
Biology
Rebecca S. L. Lovell, Sinead Collins, Simon H. Martin, Alex L. Pigot, Albert B. Phillimore
Summary: In an era of rapid environmental change, predicting the response of biodiversity to climate change is a pressing challenge. Spatial climate-biotic relationships are commonly used as a substitute for long-term biological data to infer biotic responses to climate change over time. This review examines the use of climate-focused 'space-for-time substitutions' (SFTS) in four subfields of ecology and evolution, highlighting the similarities, differences, limitations, and opportunities across these subfields.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Floris M. van Beest, Niels M. Schmidt, Monica Lonborg Frederiksen, Anne K. H. Krogh, Heidi H. Petersen, Sophia V. Hansson
Summary: Measuring trace element concentrations in animal tissues can help monitor their health status, but the temporal variation and differences between tissues can complicate the assessment of element-health relationships. This study found that hair can serve as an effective biomarker for deer health assessments, but to fully understand the relationship between trace elements and health, a variety of sample matrices should be used.
BIOLOGICAL TRACE ELEMENT RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Niels Martin Schmidt, Tuomas Kankaanpaa, Mikko Tiusanen, Jeroen Reneerkens, Tom S. L. Versluijs, Lars Holst Hansen, Jannik Hansen, Hannah Sorine Gerlich, Toke T. Hoye, Alyssa R. Cirtwill, Mikhail K. Zhemchuzhnikov, Pablo Pena-Aguilera, Tomas Roslin
Summary: With global climate change, the Arctic is experiencing the fastest rates of change, which is expected to result in faster phenological shifts compared to lower latitudes. A study revisited a decade-long dataset from Zackenberg in High Arctic Greenland and found little directional change in the timing of events, despite ongoing climatic change. This finding can be attributed to a shift in temporal patterns of climate conditions.
Article
Ecology
Elise C. Gallois, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Gergana N. Daskalova, Jeffrey T. Kerby, Haydn Thomas, Andrew M. Cunliffe
Summary: Climate warming can accelerate the decomposition of organic carbon in tundra soils. This study revealed that moisture plays a greater role than temperature in the decomposition of litter, highlighting the importance of microenvironmental controls on carbon cycling.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Antoine Becker-Scarpitta, Laura H. Antao, Niels Martin Schmidt, F. Guillaume Blanchet, Elina Kaarlejaervi, Katrine Raundrup, Tomas Roslin
Summary: In Greenland, we found significant changes in flower density over time, but the trends and drivers differed among species and sites. The low-Arctic site showed an increase in flower density, while the high-Arctic site did not show a directional change. The effects of summer temperature, the temperature of the previous autumn, and snowmelt timing varied among species and sites.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mariana Garcia Criado, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Anne D. Bjorkman, Signe Normand, Anne Blach-Overgaard, Haydn J. D. Thomas, Anu Eskelinen, Konsta Happonen, Juha M. Alatalo, Alba Anadon-Rosell, Isabelle Aubin, Mariska te Beest, Katlyn R. Betway-May, Daan Blok, Allan Buras, Bruno E. L. Cerabolini, Katherine Christie, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Bruce C. Forbes, Esther R. Frei, Paul Grogan, Luise Hermanutz, Robert D. Hollister, James Hudson, Maitane Iturrate-Garcia, Elina Kaarlejaervi, Michael Kleyer, Laurent J. Lamarque, Jonas J. Lembrechts, Esther Levesque, Miska Luoto, Petr Macek, Jeremy L. May, Janet S. Prevey, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Serge N. Sheremetiev, Laura Siegwart Collier, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Andrew Trant, Susanna E. Venn, Anna-Maria Virkkala
Summary: Climate change is causing species redistributions, particularly in the tundra biome. This study investigates the relationship between plant trait values and species distributions in tundra shrubs. The authors find that winner and loser species in the warming tundra biome share similar trait spaces, making them difficult to predict based on commonly measured traits.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Floris M. van Beest, Heidi H. Petersen, Anne K. H. Krogh, Monica Lonborg Frederiksen, Niels M. Schmidt, Sophia V. Hansson
Summary: This study investigated the impact of parasites on the health of fallow deer and red deer in Denmark, finding that infection with certain parasites was associated with changes in body condition. Specifically, Trichuris ssp. infection was negatively related to body condition in both deer species, while antibodies of the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii were positively related to body condition in red deer. The study highlights the importance of considering multiple parasite infections when assessing the impact on body condition and health in deer populations.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY-PARASITES AND WILDLIFE
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Patricia Pecnerova, Edana Lord, Genis Garcia-Erill, Kristian Hanghoj, Malthe Sebro Rasmussen, Jonas Meisner, Xiaodong Liu, Tom van der Valk, Cindy G. Santander, Liam Quinn, Long Lin, Shanlin Liu, Christian Caroe, Fredrik Dalerum, Anders Gotherstrom, Johannes Masviken, Sergey Vartanyan, Katrine Raundrup, Amal Al-Chaer, Linett Rasmussen, Christina Hvilsom, Mads Peter Heide-Jorgensen, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, Peter Aastrup, Peter J. Van Coeverden de Groot, Niels Martin Schmidt, Anders Albrechtsen, Love Dalen, Rasmus Heller, Ida Moltke, Hans Redlef Siegismund
Summary: Genomic studies of species threatened by extinction provide crucial information about evolutionary mechanisms and genetic consequences of population declines and bottlenecks. Studying species that thrive despite past declines can offer insights into how species avoid extinction.