Transcript Reseach and Monitoring of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in

EU Speaker’s Corner, GEO Week, Geneva, 13-17 Jan 2014
Research and Monitoring of Ecosystems and
Biodiversity in the Arctic:
What has been done, and what does it matter?
Hannele Savela
Thule Institute, University of Oulu
on behalf of the INTERACT Consortium
What is the Arctic?
 Geographic: Region
above the Arctic Circle
66° 32" N
 Biological: North of the
arctic tree line
 Climatological:
Location in high
latitudes, where the
average daily summer
temperature does not
rise above 10 C (50 F)
http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/arctic.html
What makes the Arctic special?
Climate
Nature
Biodiversity
Ecosystems
Indigenous cultures
Arctic Ecosystems and Biodiversity
Ecosystems
Biodiversity
 Foodwebs consisting of plants
and animals adapted to extreme
conditions
 One of the most productive
ecosystems in the world (e.g.
marine organisms, migratory
birds)
 Arctic wildlife have special
adaptations to survive the cold
and changeable environment
 Plant and animal species unique
to high latitudes
 Climate change is the most
serious threat to Arctic
biodiversity
 Habitat loss and degradation
 Loss of biodiversity
 Emergence of invasive alien
species
Natioal Wildlife Federation (www.nwf.org). Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (www.arcticbiodiversity.is)
What is happening?
The past years have been the
warmest recorded in the Arctic
Trends in mean surface air temperature over the period 1960 to 2011. Notice that the Arctic is red, indicating that the
trend over this 50 year period is for an increase in air temperature of more that 2° C (3.6° F) across much of the Arctic,
which is larger than for other parts of the globe. The inset shows linear trends over the period by latitude.
—Credit: NASA GISS, retrieved from http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/climate_change.html
The Arctic is changing
Time series 1995–2011 of the observed annual mass balance for the Mittivakkat
Glacier, SE Greenland (Press release by S. Mernild et al. 2011 for INTERACT).
Warming of the Arctic has
consequences…
 Changes in glaciers, permafrost, snow cover, sea ice
 Endangered ecosystems and biodiversity
 Invasive species
 Emerging diseases
 Effects on infrastructures
 Societal and cultural consequences
Human activities also affect the Arctic
Global consequences  Arctic amplification!
Melting glacier: V. Rinterknecht
What is happening?
What to do?
Can we stop it?
How can we adapt?
Research
Monitoring
Outreach and
information
Boy looking at dragonfly: H. Savela
Research and monitoring:
levels of activity
Organizations
Projects
Individuals
Project level: INTERACT
• Network for terrestrial
research and
monitoring in the
Arctic
• 58 stations across the
Arctic, northern and
northern alpine areas
• EU FP-7 Infrastructures
project 2011-2014
• One of the GEO
European Projects
Monitoring
• Data and monitoring on environment, biodiversity, and
ecosystems
 Climate records, Hydrology, Permafrost, Vegetation,
Phenology, Species richness, Population counts, Tourism
impacts
• INTERACT partners’ monitoring activities have been on-going
for up to 100 yr!
• Real-time monitoring
• Retrospective monitoring: Back to the Future
What has been done?
INTERACT strategically samples the complexity
of greening in the North
From space
to the ground
Xu et al., NCC, 2013
1982 to 2012
Research: Transnational Access




Free access to research facilities, field sites, databases
5400 days used at 20 stations in 8 countries
360 researchers from 136 groups from 19 countries,
Biodiversity, glaciology, permafrost, climate, hydrology,
ecology, biogeochemistry, human dimension…
 From research to outreach: Publications, presentations, blogs,
teaching, meeting local residents…
Photo by A. Sier
Modelling ecosystem responses to climate change;
HOLOGIS, A. Long, Durham University, UK
• Reconstructing Holocene temperature
variations using non-biting
midgesfrom the margins of the
Greenland Ice Sheet
• GINR in Greenland
• Computer-based model of the
Greenland Ice Sheet to predict how it
has changed in the past and what may
happen in the future
Photos by A. Long
Organization level: GEO
Organisations and projects working together to
 Coordinate and integrate Earth Observations to
GEOSS
 Provide data, results and information about research
and monitoring to decision and policy makers and
users at different levels: GEOSS Common
Infrastructure
• Cold Regions (WA-01-C3), Ecosystems (EC-01-C2),
Biodiversity (BI-01)
What can you
do?
Everyday actions
Citizen science
Do care about it; we can make a difference!
Citizen scince in Action:
Humpback whale photo ID
• Collection of photos of the
undersides of humpback whale
tail fins
• The underside of a humpback
whale's tail fin can be used to
identify individual whales
• Catalogue of humpback whales
that visit Greenlandic waters
 Do the same whales return to
certain regions in Greenland
year after year?
Photos by Tenna Boye.
What does it matter?
• Arctic is home to 13 million people and unique
ecosystems and biodiversity
• What happens in the Arctic amplifies, and effects the
rest of the planet through feedback mechanisms
Integrating Observations to Sustain the Planet
Thank you for listening!