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| 2. |
- Callaghan, Terry, et al.
(författare)
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Multi-Decadal Changes in Tundra Environments and Ecosystems : Synthesis of the International Polar Year-Back to the Future Project (IPY-BTF)
- 2011
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 40:6, s. 705-716
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding the responses of tundra systemsto global change has global implications. Most tundraregions lack sustained environmental monitoring and oneof the only ways to document multi-decadal change is toresample historic research sites. The International PolarYear (IPY) provided a unique opportunity for such researchthrough the Back to the Future (BTF) project (IPY project#512). This article synthesizes the results from 13 paperswithin this Ambio Special Issue. Abiotic changes includeglacial recession in the Altai Mountains, Russia; increasedsnow depth and hardness, permafrost warming, andincreased growing season length in sub-arctic Sweden;drying of ponds in Greenland; increased nutrient availabilityin Alaskan tundra ponds, and warming at mostlocations studied. Biotic changes ranged from relativelyminor plant community change at two sites in Greenland tomoderate change in the Yukon, and to dramatic increasesin shrub and tree density on Herschel Island, and in subarcticSweden. The population of geese tripled at one sitein northeast Greenland where biomass in non-grazed plotsdoubled. A model parameterized using results from a BTFstudy forecasts substantial declines in all snowbeds andincreases in shrub tundra on Niwot Ridge, Colorado overthe next century. In general, results support and provideimproved capacities for validating experimental manipulation,remote sensing, and modeling studies.
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| 3. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Arctic tundra and Polar Desert Ecosystems
- 2005
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Ingår i: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. - 9780521865098 - 0521865093
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 4. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Back to the future : Detecting past Arctic environmental change and investing in future observations
- 2018
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Ingår i: The Routledge Handbook of the Polar Regions. - 9781138843998 - 9781317549574 ; , s. 492-507
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter describes the Back to the Future (BTF) approach with illustrations of different data sets and their conclusions and stimulates the growth of such studies. The BTF Project included several studies that "discovered" old data sets, digitized them, carried out analyses and made data and analyses available in publications. An important aspect of the BTF approach is that the evidence of changes–or no changes–is determined independently of the climate change issue as the original sites, paintings, photographs, and data sets were established before the climate change paradigm predominated. Even though the intentions of the photographs were not to record the environments for future reference, backgrounds and foregrounds in many photos provide good evidence of past environments. The photographs were taken at the end of the nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century and many show important environmental details in an area of Swedish Lapland where development has not obscured the field of view of the photographs.
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| 5. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Biodiversity, distributions and adaptations of arctic species in the context of environmental change
- 2004
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Ingår i: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment. - : Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. - 0044-7447. ; 33:7, s. 404-417
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The individual of a species is the basic unit which responds to climate and UV-B changes, and it responds over a wide range of time scales. The diversity of animal, plant and microbial species appears to be low in the Arctic, and decreases from the boreal forests to the polar deserts of the extreme North but primitive species are particularly abundant. This latitudinal decline is associated with an increase in super-dominant species that occupy a wide range of habitats. Climate warming is expected to reduce the abundance and restrict the ranges of such species and to affect species at their northern range boundaries more than in the South: some Arctic animal and plant specialists could face extinction. Species most likely to expand into tundra are boreal species that currently exist as outlier populations in the Arctic. Many plant species have characteristics that allow them to survive short snow-free growing seasons, low solar angles, permafrost and low soil temperatures, low nutrient availability and physical disturbance. Many of these characteristics are likely to limit species responses to climate warming, but mainly because of poor competitive ability compared with potential immigrant species. Terrestrial Arctic animals possess many adaptations that enable them to persist under a wide range of temperatures in the Arctic. Many escape unfavorable weather and resource shortage by winter dormancy or by migration. The biotic environment of Arctic animal species is relatively simple with few enemies, competitors, diseases, parasites and available food resources. Terrestrial Arctic animals are likely to be most vulnerable to warmer and drier summers, climatic changes that interfere with migration routes and staging areas, altered snow conditions and freeze-thaw cycles in winter, climate-induced disruption of the seasonal timing of reproduction and development, and influx of new competitors, predators, parasites and diseases. Arctic microorganisms are also well adapted to the Arctics climate: some can metabolize at temperatures down to -39degreesC. Cyanobacteria and algae have a wide range of adaptive strategies that allow them to avoid, or at least minimize UV injury. Microorganisms can tolerate most environmental conditions and they have short generation times which can facilitate rapid adaptation to new environments. In contrast, Arctic plant and animal species are very likely to change their distributions rather than evolve significantly in response to warming.
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| 6. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Climate Change and UV-B Impacts on Arctic Tundra and Polar Desert Ecosystems: Key Findings and Extended Summaries
- 2004
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Ingår i: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment. - 0044-7447. ; 33:7, s. 386-392
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Arctic has become an important region in which to assess the impacts of current climate variability and amplification of projected global warming. This is because i) the Arctic has experienced considerable warming in recent decades (an average of about 3°C and between 4° and 5°C over much of the landmass); i) climate projections suggest a continuation of the warming trend with an increase in mean annual temperatures of 4–5°C by 2080; ii) recent warming is already impacting the environment and economy of the Arctic and these impacts are expected to increase and affect also life style, culture and ecosystems; and iv) changes occurring in the Arctic are likely to affect other regions of the Earth, for example changes in snow, vegetation and sea ice are likely to affect the energy balance and ocean circulation at regional and even global scales (Chapter 1 in ref. 1). Responding to the urgent need to understand and project impacts of changes in climate and UV-B radiation on many facets of the Arctic, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) (1) undertook a four-year study. Part of this study (1–10) assessed the impacts of changes in climate and UV-B radiation on Arctic terrestrial ecosystems, both those changes already occurring and those likely to occur in the future. Here, we present the key findings of the assessment of climate change impacts on tundra and polar desert ecosystems, and xtended summaries of its components.
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| 7. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Effects of changes in climate on landscape and regional processes, and feedbacks to the climate system
- 2004
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Ingår i: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment. - 0044-7447. ; 33:7, s. 459-468
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biological and physical processes in the Arctic system operate at various temporal and spatial scales to impact large-scale feedbacks and interactions with the earth system. There are four main potential feedback mechanisms between the impacts of climate change on the Arctic and the global climate system: albedo, greenhouse gas emissions or uptake by ecosystems, greenhouse gas emissions from methane hydrates, and increased freshwater fluxes that could affect the thermohaline circulation. All these feedbacks are controlled to some extent by changes in ecosystem distribution and character and particularly by large-scale movement of vegetation zones. Indications from a few, full annual measurements of CO2 fluxes are that currently the source areas exceed sink areas in geographical distribution. The little available information on CH4 sources indicates that emissions at the landscape level are of great importance for the total greenhouse balance of the circumpolar North. Energy and water balances of Arctic landscapes are also important feedback mechanisms in a changing climate. Increasing density and spatial expansion of vegetation will cause a lowering of the albedo and more energy to be absorbed on the ground. This effect is likely to exceed the negative feedback of increased C sequestration in greater primary productivity resulting from the displacements of areas of polar desert by tundra, and areas of tundra by forest. The degradation of permafrost has complex consequences for trace gas dynamics. In areas of discontinuous permafrost, warming, will lead to a complete loss of the permafrost. Depending on local hydrological conditions this may in turn lead to a wetting or drying of the environment with subsequent implications for greenhouse gas fluxes. Overall, the complex interactions between processes contributing to feedbacks, variability over time and space in these processes, and insufficient data have generated considerable uncertainties in estimating the net effects of climate change on terrestrial feedbacks to the climate system. This uncertainty applies to magnitude, and even direction of some of the feedbacks.
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| 8. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Effects on the structure of arctic ecosystems in the short- and long-term perspectives
- 2004
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Ingår i: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment. - : Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. - 0044-7447. ; 33:7, s. 436-447
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Species individualistic responses to warming and increased UV-B radiation are moderated by the responses of neighbors within communities, and trophic interactions within ecosystems. All of these responses lead to changes in ecosystem structure. Experimental manipulation of environmental factors expected to change at high latitudes showed that summer warming of tundra vegetation has generally led to smaller changes than fertilizer addition. Some of the factors manipulated have strong effects on the structure of Arctic ecosystems but the effects vary regionally, with the greatest response of plant and invertebrate communities being observed at the coldest locations. Arctic invertebrate communities are very likely to respond rapidly to warming whereas microbial biomass and nutrient stocks are more stable. Experimentally enhanced UV-B radiation altered the community composition of gram-negative bacteria and fungi, but not that of plants. Increased plant productivity due to warmer summers may dominate food-web dynamics. Trophic interactions of tundra and sub-Arctic forest plant-based food webs are centered on a few dominant animal species which often have cyclic population fluctuations that lead to extremely high peak abundances in some years. Population cycles of small rodents and insect defoliators such as the autumn moth affect the structure and diversity of tundra and forest-tundra vegetation and the viability of a number of specialist predators and parasites. Ice crusting in warmer winters is likely to reduce the accessibility of plant food to lemmings, while deep snow may protect them from snow-surface predators. In Fennoscandia, there is evidence already for a pronounced shift in small rodent community structure and dynamics that have resulted in a decline of predators that specialize in feeding on small rodents. Climate is also likely to alter the role of insect pests in the birch forest system: warmer winters may increase survival of eggs and expand the range of the insects. Insects that harass reindeer in the summer are also likely to become more widespread, abundant and active during warmer summers while refuges for reindeer/caribou on glaciers and late snow patches will probably disappear.
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| 9. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Past changes in arctic terrestrial ecosystems, climate and UV radiation
- 2004
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Ingår i: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment. - 0044-7447. ; 33:7, s. 398-403
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- At the last glacial maximum, vast ice sheets covered many continental areas. The beds of some shallow seas were exposed thereby connecting previously separated landmasses. Although some areas were ice-free and supported a flora and fauna, mean annual temperatures were 10-13degreesC colder than during the Holocene. Within a few millennia of the glacial maximum, deglaciation started, characterized by a series of climatic fluctuations between about 18 000 and 11 400 years ago. Following the general thermal maximum in the Holocene, there has been a modest overall cooling trend, superimposed upon which have been a series of millennial and centennial fluctuations in climate such as the "Little Ice Age spanning approximately the late 13th to early 19th centuries. Throughout the climatic fluctuations of the last 150 000 years, Arctic ecosystems and biota have been close to their minimum extent within the most recent 10 000 years. They suffered loss of diversity as a result of extinctions during the most recent large-magnitude rapid global warming at the end of the last glacial stage. Consequently, Arctic ecosystems and biota such as large vertebrates are already under pressure and are particularly vulnerable to current and projected future global warming. Evidence from the past indicates that the treeline will very as it probably advance, perhaps rapidly, into tundra areas, a it did during the early Holocene, reducing the extent of tundra and increasing the risk of species extinction. Species will very probably extend their ranges northwards, displacing Arctic species as in the past. However, unlike the early Holocene, when lower relative sea level allowed a belt of tundra to persist around at least some parts of the Arctic basin when treelines advanced to the present coast, sea level is very likely to rise in future, further restricting the area of tundra and other treeless Arctic ecosystems. The negative response of current Arctic ecosystems to global climatic conditions that are apparently without precedent during the Pleistocene is likely to be considerable, particularly as their exposure to co-occurring environmental changes (such as enhanced levels of UV-B, deposition of nitrogen compounds from the atmosphere, heavy metal and acidic pollution, radioactive contamination, increased habitat fragmentation) is also without precedent.
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| 10. |
- Callaghan, Terry V., et al.
(författare)
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Rationale, concepts and approach to the assessment
- 2004
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Ingår i: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment. - 0044-7447. ; 33:7, s. 393-397
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A general recognition that the Arctic will amplify global climate warming, that UV-B radiation may continue to increase there because of possible delays in the repair of stratospheric ozone, and that the Arctic environment and its peoples are likely to be particularly susceptible to such environmental changes stimulated an international assessment of climate change impacts. The Arctic Climate Impacts Assessment (ACIA) is a four-year study, culminating in publication of a major scientific report (1) as well as other products. In this paper and those following in this Ambio Special Issue, we present the findings of the section of the report that focuses on terrestrial ecosystems of the Arctic, from the treeline ecotone to the polar deserts. The Arctic is generally recognized as a treeless wilderness with cold winters and cool summers. However, definitions of the southern boundary vary according to environmental, geographical or political biases. This paper and the assessment in the following papers of this Ambio Special Issue focus on biota (plants, animals and microorganisms) and processes in the region beyond the northern limit of the closed forest (the taiga), but we also include processes south of this boundary that affect ecosystems in the Arctic. Examples are overwintering periods of migratory animals spent in the south and the regulation of the latitudinal treeline. The geographical area we have defined as the current Arctic is the area we use for developing scenarios of future impacts: Our geographical area of interest will not decrease under a scenario of the replacement of current Arctic tundra by boreal forests.
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