New instruments in the research tool kit bolster scientific understanding of the ecology of a greening Arctic.
As Earth warms, satellite images send strong indications of Arctic greening. But a greening signal belies greater complexity. Climate change brings a ground war to the tundra as plants compete for dominance. In many tundra regions, taller shrubs are invading areas once bare or with short cover like lichen. Understanding Arctic vegetation change is vital to understanding carbon storage and feedback mechanisms to help improve climate change models. But revealing granular details is challenging in an environment that is remote, difficult to access, and sparsely populated. For decades, remote sensing has provided Arctic eyes in the sky but has drawbacks. Ecologists are challenged with trying to extrapolate fine-scale patterns from coarse-grained satellite observations.
Emerging research suggests drones could help bridge mismatches of scale.
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