Regional hotspots of change in northern high latitudes informed by observations from space

The high latitudes cover ∼20% of Earth's land surface. This region is facing many shifts in thermal, moisture and vegetation properties, driven by climate warming. Here we leverage remote sensing and climate reanalysis records to improve understanding of changes in ecosystem indicators. We applied n...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Watts, Jennifer D.; Potter, Stefano; Rogers, Brendan M.; Virkkala, Anna-Maria; Fiske, Greg; Arndt, Kyle A.; Burrell, Arden; Butler, Kevin; Gerlt, Bob; Grayson, John; Shestakova, Tatiana A.; Du, Jinyang; Kim, Youngwook; Parmentier, Frans-Jan W.; Natali, Susan M.
Format: Article
Status:Published version
Publication date:2025
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/467779
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL108081
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/467779
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Amplification
Arctic
Boreal
Change detection
Permafrost
Description
Summary:The high latitudes cover ∼20% of Earth's land surface. This region is facing many shifts in thermal, moisture and vegetation properties, driven by climate warming. Here we leverage remote sensing and climate reanalysis records to improve understanding of changes in ecosystem indicators. We applied non-parametric trend detections and Getis-Ord Gi* spatial hotspot assessments. We found substantial terrestrial warming trends across Siberia, portions of Greenland, Alaska, and western Canada. The same regions showed increases in vapor pressure deficit; changes in precipitation and soil moisture were variable. Vegetation greening and browning were widespread across both continents. Browning of the boreal zone was especially evident in autumn. Multivariate hotspot analysis indicated that Siberian ecoregions have experienced substantial, simultaneous, changes in thermal, moisture and vegetation status. Finally, we found that using regionally-based trends alone, without local assessments, can yield largely incomplete views of high-latitude change. © 2025.