Videos
Featured Scientist: Scott Goetz, Ph.D. Deputy Director and Senior Scientist
Project: Tundra Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change
The impacts of climate change are amplified at high latitudes, and tundra ecosystems are responding rapidly. At the Woods Hole Research Center we are using a multifaceted approach to measure the complex changes occurring in arctic tundra, and to model how these changes will influence climate in the future. One of the first indications of this was our work documenting widespread increases in plant productivity throughout the Arctic, and independent observation of tundra shrub expansion. While carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere as a result of increased tundra productivity, the darker shrub vegetation absorbs more solar radiation, leading to additional warming. At the same time, widespread permafrost thaw is changing the very appearance of the arctic landscape, in addition to releasing long-frozen carbon.
Video: Produced by Research Associate Kathleen Savage.
Image: North Slope of Alaska. Courtesy of Michael Loranty. Composite design by Development Solutions of New England (DSNE).
