Using Long-Term Experimental Warming To Distinguish Vegetation Responses To Warming From Other Environmental Drivers Related To Climate Change

Long term studies of vegetation change throughout the tundra biome show increases in the height, canopy extent and dominance of vascular vegetation versus bryophytes and lichens, with mixed responses of the dominant shrub and graminoid growth forms. Increases in vascular vegetation are recorded for sites with and without measurable climatic warming over recent decades, but with other potential drivers, i.e., increased summer precipitation. Experimental warming of tundra vegetation at Toolik Lake, Alaska shows a clear increase in shrub abundance relative to graminoids, with correlated higher NDVI values, increasing canopy heights, and thaw depths. Responses were similar between moist and dry tundra vegetation, with greater responses in moist vegetation. NDVI, with its ability to distinguish shrub from graminoid vegetation, may be a tool to distinguish fine scale differences in the response of tundra vegetation to climatic change, i.e., shifting balances of shrub and graminoid relative abundances that may be related to distinct climatic change drivers.