Greening of Svalbard in the twentieth century driven by sea ice loss and glaciers retreat

The greening of previously barren landscapes in the Arctic is one of the most relevant responses of terrestrial ecosystem to climate change. Analyses of satellite data (available since ~1980) have revealed a widespread tundra advance consistent with recent global warming, but the length is insuffici...

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Veröffentlicht in:Communications earth & environment Jg. 6; H. 1; S. 30 - 13
Hauptverfasser: Ingrosso, Gianmarco, Ceccarelli, Chiara, Giglio, Federico, Giordano, Patrizia, Hefter, Jens, Langone, Leonardo, Miserocchi, Stefano, Mollenhauer, Gesine, Nogarotto, Alessio, Sabino, Mathia, Tesi, Tommaso
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.01.2025
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Schlagworte:
20th century
704/106/47/4113
704/106/694/2739
704/158/2165
704/158/2462
704/172/4081
Biomarkers
Climate change
Cryosphere
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Environment
Fjords
Glacier retreat
Glaciers
Global warming
Greening
Ice ages
Plant species
Plants
Plants (botany)
Population decline
Sea ice
Summer
Taiga & tundra
Tundra
Vegetation
Arctic region
ISSN:2662-4435, 2662-4435
Online-Zugang:Volltext
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Zusammenfassung:The greening of previously barren landscapes in the Arctic is one of the most relevant responses of terrestrial ecosystem to climate change. Analyses of satellite data (available since ~1980) have revealed a widespread tundra advance consistent with recent global warming, but the length is insufficient to resolve the long-term variability and the precise timing of the greening onset. Here, we measured plant-derived biomarkers from an Arctic fjord sediment core as proxies for reconstructing past changes in tundra vegetation during the transition from the Little Ice Age to modern warming. Our findings revealed a rapid expansion of the tundra since the beginning of the twentieth century, largely coinciding with the decline of summer sea ice extent and glacier retreat. The greening trend inferred from biomarker analysis peaked significantly in the late 1990s, along with a shift in the tundra community towards a more mature successional stage. Most of these signals were consistent with the biomolecular fingerprints of vascular plant species that are more adapted to warmer conditions and have widely expanded in proglacial areas during recent decades. Our results suggest that the greening of Arctic fjords may have occurred earlier than previously thought, improving our mechanistic understanding of vegetation-climate-cryosphere interactions that will shape tundra vegetation under future warming projections. The rapid expansion of the Arctic tundra’s vegetation since the twentieth century has been driven by the decline of summer sea ice and glacier retreat, according to plant-derived biomarkers from a sediment core in Svalbard.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:2662-4435
2662-4435
DOI:10.1038/s43247-025-01994-y