Eurasian Arctic Land Cover and Land Use in a Changing Climate

330 Pages·2011·11.65 MB·English

by  Pavel Groisman

Eurasian Arctic Land Cover and Land
Use in a Changing Climate

·
Garik Gutman Anni Reissell
Editors
Eurasian Arctic Land Cover
and Land Use in a Changing
Climate
123
Editors
Dr.GarikGutman Dr.AnniReissell
NASAHeadquarters DepartmentofPhysics
300E.Street,SW PObox48(ErikPalmeninaukio1)
Washington,DC20546 00014,UniversityofHelsinki
USA Finland
[email protected] anni.reissell@helsinki.fi
ISBN978-90-481-9117-8 e-ISBN978-90-481-9118-5
DOI10.1007/978-90-481-9118-5
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010937232
©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2011
Allrightsreservedforparts/chapterswrittenbyUSGovernmentemployees2011,Chapter1and12.
Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby
anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,withoutwritten
permissionfromthePublisher,withtheexceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurpose
ofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.
Cover illustration: A color composite of the MODIS vegetation continuous fields indicating the
combinationoftreeandherbaceousvegetationcoverandbareground.Greenhuesindicatedominance
oftreecover,bluehuesindicatedominanceofherbaceousvegetation(tundra),andredhuesindicatebare
ground.Landandnationalbordersareshownandwhiteareasrepresentice,includingthepolaricecapas
recordedinSeptember2008.ThefigureisbasedonGoetz,etal.(thisvolume),withartworkbyG.Fiske.
TheMODISvegetationcontinuousfieldsproductisavailableathttp://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/vcf/.
Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Preface
ChangesinlandcoverandoceaniceintheArcticareamongtheearliestindicators
oftheEarth’sresponsetoclimatewarming.Duringthelastperiodofmajorclimatic
change – the Holocene (11,700 – ca. 2000 BP) – the changes and drivers were
natural.IntheAntropocene(fromthelateeighteenthcentury),thecurrentperiodin
theEarth’shistorywhenhumanactivitieshavehadasignificantglobalimpactonthe
Earth’secosystems,thechangesareaccompaniedbytheaddedcomplexityofman-
made anthropogenic pollutants and green house gas emissions and man-induced
land-coverchanges.
It is anticipated that the changes in the Arctic will be most pronounced. Also,
climate change is expected to accelerate affecting both the Arctic ecosystem and
thesocioeconomicinfrastructure.Moreover,changesintheArcticarepredictedto
affecttheclimateandpeopleonaglobalscaleastheecosystemresponsestowarm-
ingoftheArctichavethepotentialtofeedbackeitherpositivelyornegativelytothe
wholeclimatesystem.
Monitoring the dynamics of the circumpolar boreal forest (taiga) and Arctic
tundra boundary is important for understanding the causes and consequences of
changes observed in these areas. Because of the lack of in situ data due to inac-
cessibility and large extent of this zone, remote sensing data play an important
role. Accurate mapping of land cover and monitoring its change are fundamental
requirementsforglobalchangeresearch.
The timing of this book is very appropriate due to the recent ending of the
International Polar Year (IPY). The focus is on the Arctic region of Northern
Eurasia, although some comparisons are made with the results in North America.
Thisvolumecontainsresultsofvegetation-changestudies,studiesofthegeographic
patterns of fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane and their balance and changes
overtime,studiesofchangesinhydrologicalsystems,wildlifepopulationsandthe
overall habitability of the Arctic, and studies of aerosol and pollution. The arti-
cles provide pathways to strategies for adaptation to the observed and predicted
changes, and facilitate assessments of the impacts and opportunities related to
naturalresourcemanagementofenergyandtransportationdevelopments.
For sound mitigation and adaptation measures, land-use and land-cover change
research should be multi- and interdisciplinary involving both natural and social
scientists.Inthisrespect,thebookisatrulyinternational,interdisciplinaryeffortof
v
vi Preface
ateamconsistingofnaturalandsocialscientistsfromtheUSA,EuropeandRussia
under the auspices of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative
(NEESPI). NASA, US National Science Foundation, the Russian Academy of
Sciences, the Academy of Finland and other European institutions supported the
studiesusedinthebook.
The book is of interest to a broad range of scientists studying recent and
ongoing changes in the Arctic, be they senior or early career scientists, or gradu-
ate students. This volume is essentially the NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change
Program’s contribution to the IPY. We warmly thank all the contributors of this
book and acknowledge the support from NASA and other funding agencies, the
University of Helsinki and the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes
Study(iLEAPS)InternationalProjectOffice.
Acknowledgments
TheauthorsandeditorsaregratefultoTyyneViisanenforhertechnicaleditingand
continuous, diligent work on compiling the contributions. The authors and editors
also gratefully acknowledge the help and diligent editing of Alla Borisova in the
finalstageofthisbook.
The studies in this volume were supported through the grants provided as part
of the following programs: the NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change Program,
the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, the NOAA Climate
ProgramOffice,ArcticSystemScienceProgramandInternationalPolarYearpro-
grams,theNASANorthAmericanCarbonProgram,theBonanzaCreekLongTerm
EcologicalProgram(fundedjointlybyNSFgrantDEB-0423442andUSDAForest
Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station grant PNW01-JV11261952-231), the
Academy of Finland through the Russia in Flux Programme to the ENSINOR
project,andtheRussianAcademyofScience.AdditionalsupportfromtheInstitute
of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, USA is gratefully
acknowledged.
The Editors (G.G. and A.R.) acknowledge the support received by Dr. Gutman
from NASA and the University of Helsinki, Finland while on detail from NASA
Headquarters,duringwhichmostoftheworkonthecompilationofthisvolumewas
accomplished.TheeditorsalsogratefullyacknowledgetheUniversityofHelsinki,
DepartmentofPhysics,DivisionofAtmosphericSciencesandGeophysics,andthe
IntegratedLandEcosystem-AtmosphereProcessesStudy(iLEAPS),acoreproject
oftheInternationalGeosphere-BiosphereProgramme(IGBP).
ThanksgotoDr.MichaelS.Balshiforprovisionofhistoricalfiredatasets.
For Chapter 8, support was provided in part by the Research Council
of Norway, Project IPY EALAT-RESEARCH: Reindeer Herders Vulnerability
Network Study: Reindeer Pastoralism in a Changing Climate, grant 176078/S30.
A portion of the NASA work was supported by the NASA Land Cover
Land Use Change (LCLUC) Program and NASA’s Radar Research Program
(NASA51-621-21-01-20). Synthetic Aperture Radar data were provided by the
EuropeanSpaceAgencyandAlaskaSatelliteFacility.
AuthorsofChapter8thankMr.PhilipBurgessforhiscarefulreviewandhelp-
ful comments during preparation of the article. Authors are grateful to Dr. Peter
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Wasilewski, NASA GSFC History of Winter Program (HOW), for providing
NASAthermochronsandMr.AllenLunsfordforprovidingtechnicalassistancefor
thermochronuseintheEALATsnowstudy.
AuthorsofChapter10acknowledgesupportprovidedbyNASAIPYRadiation
ProgramandinpartbyNASALandCoverLandUseChange(LCLUC)Program.
Contents
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
JohnRichardMartin“Joonas”Derome(1947–2010):InMemoriam . . xvii
ListofAbbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
1 Introduction:ClimateandLand-CoverChangesintheArctic . . . 1
PavelGroisman,GarikGutman,andAnniReissell
2 RecentChangesinArcticVegetation:SatelliteObservations
andSimulationModelPredictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
ScottJ.Goetz,HowardE.Epstein,UmaS.Bhatt,
GensuoJ.Jia,JedO.Kaplan,HeikeLischke,QinYu,
AndrewBunn,AndreaH.Lloyd,DomingoAlcaraz-Segura,
PieterS.A.Beck,JosefinoC.Comiso,MarthaK.Raynolds,
andDonaldA.Walker
3 High-LatitudeForestCoverLossinNorthernEurasia,
2000–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
PeterV.Potapov,MatthewC.Hansen,andStephenV.Stehman
4 Characterization and Monitoring of Tundra-Taiga
TransitionZonewithMulti-sensorSatelliteData . . . . . . . . . . 53
GuoqingSun,KennethJ.Ranson,ViatcheslavI.Kharuk,
SergeyT.Im,andMukhtarM.Naurzbaev
5 VegetationCoverintheEurasianArctic:Distribution,
Monitoring,andRoleinCarbonCycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
OlgaN.Krankina,DirkPflugmacher,DanielJ.Hayes,
A.DavidMcGuire,MatthewC.Hansen,TuomasHäme,
VladimirElsakov,andPederNelson
6 TheEffectsofLandCoverandLandUseChangeonthe
ContemporaryCarbonBalanceoftheArcticandBoreal
TerrestrialEcosystemsofNorthernEurasia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
DanielJ.Hayes,A.DavidMcGuire,DavidW.Kicklighter,
ToddJ.Burnside,andJerryM.Melillo
ix