Phys.org October 10, 2024
Rapid warming and increasing disturbances in high-latitude regions have caused extensive vegetation shifts and uncertainty in future carbon budgets. Better predictions of vegetation dynamics and functions require characterizing resilience, which indicates the capability of an ecosystem to recover from perturbations. A team of researchers in the US (The Ohio State University, University of Utah, Northern Arizona University) used temporal autocorrelation of remotely sensed greenness to quantify time-varying vegetation resilience during 2000–2019 across northwestern North American Arctic-boreal ecosystems. They found that vegetation resilience significantly decreased in southern boreal forests, including forests showing greening trends, while it increased in most of the Arctic tundra. Warm and dry areas with high elevation and dense vegetation cover were among the hotspots of reduced resilience. Resilience further declined both before and after forest losses and fires, especially in southern boreal forests. According to the researchers, their findings indicate that warming and disturbance have been altering vegetation resilience, potentially undermining the expected long-term increase of high-latitude carbon uptake under future climate… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Greening does not always enhance vegetation resilience. Credit: Nature Ecology & Evolution, 8 October 2024