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A realistic simulation of snow cover and its thermal properties are important for accurate modelling of permafrost. We analyse simulated relationships between air and near-surface (20 cm) soil temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region during winter, with a particular focus on snow insulation effects in nine land surface models, and compare them with observations from 268 Russian st
Carbon assimilation defined as the overall rate of fixation of carbon through the process of photosynthesis is central to the climate change research. The present study compares the two well-known algorithms in satellite based carbon assimilation estimation, the Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM) and the MOD 17A2 GPP Model, over the tropical forest types in India for a period of two years (Sept
Uncertainty refers to any limitation in knowledge. Identifying and characterizing uncertainty in conclusions is important to ensure transparency and avoid over or under confidence in scientific assessments. Quantitative expressions of uncertainty are less ambiguous compared to uncertainty expressed qualitatively, or not at all. Subjective probability is an example of a quantitative expression of e
We analyzed the impacts of drought severity on a variety of sectors in a topographically complex basin (the upper Aragón basin 2181 km2) in the Central Spanish Pyrenees. Using diverse data sources including meteorological and hydrological observations, remote sensing and tree rings, we analyze the possible hydrological implications of drought occurrence and severity on water availability in variou
Temperature is one of the key abiotic factors during the life of plants, especially in the Arctic region which is currently experiencing rapid climate change. We evaluated plant traits and environmental variables determining leaf temperature in tundra shrubs and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions with field measurements on deciduous tundra shrubs, Salix myrsinites and Betula nana, and everg
Understanding the interactions of climate-vegetation and human-vegetation has been a critical issue and increasingly attracting attention from scientific community in the field of global change research. This study investigated the heterogeneous impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on vegetation change by applying the trend analysis and Geodetector approach. The spatial and tempo
Vegetation is an important component in the Earth system, providing a direct link between the biosphere and atmosphere. As such, a representative vegetation pattern is needed to accurately simulate climate. We attempt to model global vegetation (biomes) with a data-driven approach, to test if this allows us to create robust global and regional vegetation patterns. This not only provides quantitati
Increasing water deficits and severe droughts are expected to alter the dynamics of vegetation post-disturbance recovery by decreasing new recruitment and limiting growth in semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems in future. However, which vegetation metrics will be shifted and how they respond over time are not clear, and the experimental evidence is still limited. Here we assessed the impacts of a lo
Current land use and climate change pose a threat to the continued provision of ecosystem services expected from terrestrial land cover. Studies on past land-cover responses to such changes provide valuable information for future decisions. The hemiboreal zone, situated between temperate and boreal biomes, is a natural sensitivity hotspot for land cover change: it contains a continuous distributio
Coastal environments, in particular heavily populated semi-enclosed marginal seas and coasts like the Baltic Sea region, are strongly affected by human activities. A multitude of human impacts, including climate change, affect the different compartments of the environment, and these effects interact with each other. As part of the Baltic Earth Assessment Reports (BEAR), we present an inventory and
Arctic observing and data systems have been widely recognized as critical infrastructures to support decision making and understanding across sectors in the Arctic and globally. Yet due to broad and persistent issues related to coordination, deployment infrastructure and technology gaps, the Arctic remains among the most poorly observed regions on the planet from the standpoint of conventional obs
Cold region ecosystems store vast amounts of soil organic carbon (C), which upon warming and decomposition can affect the C balance and potentially change these ecosystems from C sinks to carbon dioxide (CO2) sources. We quantified the decadal year-round CO2 flux from an alpine steppe-ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau using eddy covariance and automatic chamber approaches during a period of signifi
Large stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulated in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost regions may be vulnerable to climatic warming, but global estimates of SOC distribution and magnitude in permafrost regions still have large uncertainties. Based on multiple high-resolution environmental variables and a compiled soil sample dataset (>3000 soil profiles), we used machine-learning methods to
Future Arctic tundra primary productivity and vegetation community composition will partly be determined by nitrogen (N) availability in a warmer climate. N mineralization rates are predicted to increase in both winter and summer, but because N demand and –mobility varies across seasons, the fate of mineralized N remains uncertain. N mineralized in winter is released in a “pulse” upon snowmelt and
