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PLANT COMMUNITIES

Winter in a warming Arctic

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Winter conditions have typically been downplayed or oversimplified in past estimations of terrestrial Arctic vegetation shifts in relation to climate change. A study now demonstrates the importance of fine-scale variation in winter temperature in explaining the composition and diversity of Arctic plant communities.

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Fig. 1: Topographic heterogeneity creates larges variation in soil temperatures across a landscape, due in part to the insulating properties of snow and differences in the timing of snowmelt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Anne D. Bjorkman

  2. Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Anne D. Bjorkman

  3. School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Elise C. Gallois

Authors
  1. Anne D. Bjorkman
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  2. Elise C. Gallois
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Correspondence to Anne D. Bjorkman.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Bjorkman, A.D., Gallois, E.C. Winter in a warming Arctic. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 1071–1073 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0900-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0900-3

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