Significant Greening of Arctic With More Trees And Shrubs Expected Within Just 50 Years

The already risen temperatures in the Arctic will result in significant more green vegetation growing in many of the regions, although not in the proverbial Greenland, according to a new climate study.

The models predict that the amount of trees in the Arctic could grow by as much as 50 percent over the next few decades, based on the warming trend calculated by other models, which would in accelerate climate warming at a rate greater than previously expected.

"Such widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation would have impacts that reverberate through the global ecosystem," lead author of the study titled "Shifts in Arctic vegetation and associated feedbacks under climate change" Richard Pearson said.

A greener Arctic would be significantly different from today, with half of all current vegetation changing to a new class, like tundra changing to brushes, brushes to trees. With tree coverage expected to increase greatly, tree lines will move far north of where they currently lie. The effects of such redecorating will naturally have implications for wildlife as well.

"These impacts would extend far beyond the Arctic region," Pearson explained. "For example, some species of birds seasonally migrate from lower latitudes and rely on finding particular polar habitats, such as open space for ground-nesting."

The researchers calculated that if vegetation grew at the current rate, then by 2050 there would be more plants growing in the Arctic. More trees aren't necessarily a bad thing, but more greenery in the Arctic will lead to temperatures rising even more due to the albedo effect, which would then affect other biospheres around the globe. This effect is because sunlight increasinlgy isn't reflected by snow and ice anymore, but instead gets absorbed by plants and shrubs. This absorption of the sun's rays increases temperature on the ground, thereby increasing global warming, and also increasing further vegetation growth again.

"By incorporating observed relationships between vegetation and albedo, evapotranspiration and biomass, we show that vegetation distribution shifts will result in an overall positive feedback to climate that is likely to cause greater warming than has previously been predicted," the study abstract concludes.

Full published study available in Nature Climate Change.