Vegetation type is an important predictor of the arctic summer land surface energy budget

Authors

• Jacqueline Oehri, Universität Zürich
• Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Universität Zürich
• Jin Soo Kim, Universität Zürich
• Raleigh Grysko, Universität Zürich
• Heather Kropp, Hamilton College
• Inge Grünberg, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
• Vitalii Zemlianskii, Universität Zürich
• Oliver Sonnentag, University of Montreal
• Eugénie S. Euskirchen, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Merin Reji Chacko, Universität Zürich
• Giovanni Muscari, Istituto Nazionale Di Geofisica E Vulcanologia, Rome
• Peter D. Blanken, University of Colorado Boulder
• Joshua F. Dean, University of Bristol
• Alcide di Sarra, ENEA Centro Ricerche Frascati
• Richard J. Harding, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
• Ireneusz Sobota, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu
• Lars Kutzbach, Universität Hamburg
• Elena Plekhanova, Universität Zürich
• Aku Riihelä, Finnish Meteorological Institute
• Julia Boike, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
• Nathaniel B. Miller, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jason Beringer, The University of Western Australia
• Efrén López-Blanco, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
• Paul C. Stoy, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ryan C. Sullivan, Argonne National Laboratory
• Marek Kejna, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu
• Frans Jan W. Parmentier, Universitetet i Oslo
• John A. Gamon, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Mikhail Mastepanov, Aarhus Universitet
• Christian Wille, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ)
• Marcin Jackowicz-Korczynski, Aarhus Universitet
• Dirk N. Karger, Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL
• William L. Quinton, Cold Regions Research Centre
• Jaakko Putkonen, University of North Dakota
• Dirk van As, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
• Torben R. Christensen, Aarhus Universitet
• Maria Z. Hakuba, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Robert S. Stone, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Stefan Metzger, National Ecological Observatory Network
• Baptiste Vandecrux, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

12-1-2022

Citation

Nature Communications ( 2022) 13:6379

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34049-3

Comments

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,

Abstract

Despite the importance of high-latitude surface energy budgets (SEBs) for land-climate interactions in the rapidly changing Arctic, uncertainties in their prediction persist. Here, we harmonize SEB observations across a network of vegetated and glaciated sites at circumpolar scale (1994–2021). Our variance-partitioning analysis identifies vegetation type as an important predictor for SEB-components during Arctic summer (June-August), compared to other SEB-drivers including climate, latitude and permafrost characteristics. Differences among vegetation types can be of similar magnitude as between vegetation and glacier surfaces and are especially high for summer sensible and latent heat fluxes. The timing of SEB-flux summer-regimes (when daily mean values exceed 0 Wm−2) relative to snow-free and -onset dates varies substantially depending on vegetation type, implying vegetation controls on snow-cover and SEB-flux seasonality. Our results indicate complex shifts in surface energy fluxes with land-cover transitions and a lengthening summer season, and highlight the potential for improving future Earth system models via a refined representation of Arctic vegetation types.

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