Environmental Change in Siberia: Earth Observation, Field Studies and Modelling (Advances in Global Change Research)
Language: English
Pages: 300
ISBN: 9048186404
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Siberian environment is a unique region of the world that is both very strongly affected by global climate change and at the same time particularly vulnerable to its consequences. The news about the melting of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and the prospect of an ice-free shipping passage from Scandinavia to Alaska along the Russian north coast has sparked an international debate about natural resource exploitation, national boundaries and the impacts of the rapid changes on people, animals and plants. Over the last decades Siberia has also witnessed severe forest fires to an extent that is hard to imagine in other parts of the world where the po- lation density is higher, the fire-prone ecosystems cover much smaller areas and the systems of fire control are better resourced. The acceleration of the fire regime poses the question of the future of the boreal forest in the taiga region. Vegetation models have already predicted a shift of vegetation zones to the north under s- narios of global climate change. The implications of a large-scale expansion of the grassland steppe ecosystems in the south of Siberia and a retreat of the taiga forest into the tundra systems that expand towards the Arctic Ocean would be very signi- cant for the local population and the economy. I have studied Russian forests from remote sensing and modelling for about 11 years now and still find it a fascinating subject to investigate.
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the TA’s were calculated, and this value was used to set the threshold for that land cover class. The result is a binary mask, with 1’s representing disturbance scars. However, this layer will also show other disturbances apart from burning, such as insect infestations, wind blow or logging. It also doesn’t show the date of burning. To identify and date any burns, the TA’s are used again. Any scars not overlain with TA’s are discarded. For the remaining scars, the pixels corresponding to the TA’s
January and July temperatures and annual precipitation at 1990, 2020, and 2080 are mapped at roughly on 1 km2 grid cell using the Surfer software (Fig. 5.1). Contemporary climatic layers of GDD5 and GDD0 for 1990 are mapped on the 1 km2 grid using Hutchinson’s (2000) thin plate splines. The AMI layer is calculated by dividing the GDD5 layer by the annual precipitation layer. Future climatic layers of January and July temperatures and annual precipitation for each pixel were calculated by adding
change. Springer-Practice, Heidelberg, pp 281–299 Kharuk VI, Dvinskaya ML, Ranson KJ, Im ST (2005) Expansion of evergreen conifers to the larch-dominated zone and climatic trends. Russ J Ecol 36:164–170 Kharuk VI, Ranson KJ, Im ST, Naurzbaev MM (2006) Forest-tundra larch forests and climatic trends. Russ J Ecol 37:323–331 132 V.I. Kharuk et al. Klasner FL, Fagre DB (2002) A half century of change in alpine treeline patterns at Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. Arct Antart Alp Res 34:49–56
tundra in the Noatak National Preserve, northwest Alaska. Ecoscience 6:465–470 WMO (World Meteorological Organization) (2002) WMO statement on the status of the global climate in 2002, vol 684, WMO Press Release. WMO, Geneva Part II Hydrosphere Chapter 9 Remote Sensing of Spring Snowmelt in Siberia A. Bartsch, W. Wagner, and R. Kidd Abstract Active as well as passive spaceborne sensors can be used to monitor spring snowmelt on regional to continental scale. Change detection methods are
particularly vulnerable to its consequences. The news about the melting of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and the prospect of an ice-free shipping passage from Scandinavia to Alaska along the Russian north coast has sparked an international debate about natural resource exploitation, national boundaries and the impacts of the rapid changes on people, animals and plants. Over the last decades Siberia has also witnessed severe forest fires to an extent that is hard to imagine in other parts of the