Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape
Prediction of high latitude response to climate change is hampered by poor understanding of the role of nonlinear changes in ecosystem forcing and response. While the effects of nonlinear climate change are often delayed or dampened by internal ecosystem dynamics, recent warming events in the Arctic...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 |
| _version_ | 1797747914090479616 |
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| author | Jasmine E Saros Nicholas John Anderson Stephen Juggins Suzanne McGowan Jacob C Yde Jon Telling Joanna E Bullard Marian L Yallop Adam J Heathcote Benjamin T Burpee Rachel A Fowler Christopher D Barry Robert M Northington Christopher L Osburn Sergi Pla-Rabes Sebastian H Mernild Erika J Whiteford M Grace Andrews Jeffrey T Kerby Eric Post |
| author_facet | Jasmine E Saros Nicholas John Anderson Stephen Juggins Suzanne McGowan Jacob C Yde Jon Telling Joanna E Bullard Marian L Yallop Adam J Heathcote Benjamin T Burpee Rachel A Fowler Christopher D Barry Robert M Northington Christopher L Osburn Sergi Pla-Rabes Sebastian H Mernild Erika J Whiteford M Grace Andrews Jeffrey T Kerby Eric Post |
| author_sort | Jasmine E Saros |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Prediction of high latitude response to climate change is hampered by poor understanding of the role of nonlinear changes in ecosystem forcing and response. While the effects of nonlinear climate change are often delayed or dampened by internal ecosystem dynamics, recent warming events in the Arctic have driven rapid environmental response, raising questions of how terrestrial and freshwater systems in this region may shift in response to abrupt climate change. We quantified environmental responses to recent abrupt climate change in West Greenland using long-term monitoring and paleoecological reconstructions. Using >40 years of weather data, we found that after 1994, mean June air temperatures shifted 2.2 °C higher and mean winter precipitation doubled from 21 to 40 mm; since 2006, mean July air temperatures shifted 1.1 °C higher. Nonlinear environmental responses occurred with or shortly after these abrupt climate shifts, including increasing ice sheet discharge, increasing dust, advancing plant phenology, and in lakes, earlier ice out and greater diversity of algal functional traits. Our analyses reveal rapid environmental responses to nonlinear climate shifts, underscoring the highly responsive nature of Arctic ecosystems to abrupt transitions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:58:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec489 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:58:23Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec4892023-08-09T14:45:53ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262019-01-0114707402710.1088/1748-9326/ab2928Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscapeJasmine E Saros0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7652-9985Nicholas John Anderson1Stephen Juggins2Suzanne McGowan3Jacob C Yde4Jon Telling5Joanna E Bullard6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2030-0188Marian L Yallop7Adam J Heathcote8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9633-9548Benjamin T Burpee9Rachel A Fowler10Christopher D Barry11Robert M Northington12Christopher L Osburn13Sergi Pla-Rabes14Sebastian H Mernild15Erika J Whiteford16M Grace Andrews17Jeffrey T Kerby18Eric Post19Climate Change Institute and School of Biology & Ecology, University of Maine , Orono, ME, United States of AmericaDepartment of Geography, Loughborough University , Loughborough, United KingdomSchool of Geography, Politics & Sociology, Newcastle University , Newcastle, United KingdomSchool of Geography, University of Nottingham , Nottingham, NG72RD, United KingdomDepartment of Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences , Sogndal, NorwaySchool of Natural & Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University , Newcastle, United KingdomDepartment of Geography, Loughborough University , Loughborough, United KingdomSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol , Bristol, United KingdomSt. Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, United States of AmericaClimate Change Institute and School of Biology & Ecology, University of Maine , Orono, ME, United States of AmericaClimate Change Institute and School of Biology & Ecology, University of Maine , Orono, ME, United States of AmericaCentre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bangor LL57 2UW, United KingdomClimate Change Institute and School of Biology & Ecology, University of Maine , Orono, ME, United States of AmericaDepartment of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, NC, United States of AmericaCREAF, Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications, Cerdanyola de Valles, Barcelona, SpainDepartment of Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences , Sogndal, Norway; Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Bergen, Norway; Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Program, Universidad de Magallanes , Punta Arenas, ChileSchool of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University , Nottingham, United KingdomOcean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton , Southampton, United KingdomNeukom Institute for Computational Science, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, United States of AmericaDepartment of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, University of California , Davis, United States of AmericaPrediction of high latitude response to climate change is hampered by poor understanding of the role of nonlinear changes in ecosystem forcing and response. While the effects of nonlinear climate change are often delayed or dampened by internal ecosystem dynamics, recent warming events in the Arctic have driven rapid environmental response, raising questions of how terrestrial and freshwater systems in this region may shift in response to abrupt climate change. We quantified environmental responses to recent abrupt climate change in West Greenland using long-term monitoring and paleoecological reconstructions. Using >40 years of weather data, we found that after 1994, mean June air temperatures shifted 2.2 °C higher and mean winter precipitation doubled from 21 to 40 mm; since 2006, mean July air temperatures shifted 1.1 °C higher. Nonlinear environmental responses occurred with or shortly after these abrupt climate shifts, including increasing ice sheet discharge, increasing dust, advancing plant phenology, and in lakes, earlier ice out and greater diversity of algal functional traits. Our analyses reveal rapid environmental responses to nonlinear climate shifts, underscoring the highly responsive nature of Arctic ecosystems to abrupt transitions.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928abrupt climate changeArcticnonlinearecosystems |
| spellingShingle | Jasmine E Saros Nicholas John Anderson Stephen Juggins Suzanne McGowan Jacob C Yde Jon Telling Joanna E Bullard Marian L Yallop Adam J Heathcote Benjamin T Burpee Rachel A Fowler Christopher D Barry Robert M Northington Christopher L Osburn Sergi Pla-Rabes Sebastian H Mernild Erika J Whiteford M Grace Andrews Jeffrey T Kerby Eric Post Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape Environmental Research Letters abrupt climate change Arctic nonlinear ecosystems |
| title | Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
| title_full | Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
| title_fullStr | Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
| title_full_unstemmed | Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
| title_short | Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
| title_sort | arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the west greenland landscape |
| topic | abrupt climate change Arctic nonlinear ecosystems |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 |
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