Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape

Saros, Jasmine E.; Anderson, Nicholas John; Juggins, Stephen; McGowan, Suzanne; Yde, Jacob C.; Telling, Jon; Bullard, Joanna E.; Yallop, Marian L.; Heathcote, Adam J.; Burpee, Benjamin T.; Fowler, Rachel A.; Barry, Christopher D.; Northington, Robert M.; Osburn, Christopher L.; Pla-Rabes, Sergi; Mernild, Sebastian H.; Whiteford, Erika J.; Andrews, M Grace; Kerby, Jeffrey T.; Post, Eric

Abstract

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.

Citation

Saros, J. E., Anderson, N. J., Juggins, S., McGowan, S., Yde, J. C., Telling, J., …Post, E. (2019). Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape. Environmental Research Letters, 14(7), Article 074027. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 12, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 12, 2019
• Publication Date: Jul 16, 2019
• Deposit Date: Mar 23, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 24, 2020
• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Electronic ISSN: 1748-9326
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 7
• Article Number: 074027
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928
• Keywords: Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; General Environmental Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4194074
• Publisher URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928
• Additional Information: Journal title: Environmental Research Letters; Article type: lett; Article title: Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape; Copyright information: © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd; License information: cc-by Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.; Date received: 2019-01-17; Date accepted: 2019-06-12; Online publication date: 2019-07-16