Introduction: Climate and Land-Cover Changes in the Arctic

Abstract

The last 10 years have been the warmest in the Arctic during the 120-year period of instrumental observations. The global mean surface temperature during that period has increased by about 0.8°C, with stronger changes in the Arctic. Retreat of the Arctic sea ice during the past decades open an additional source of heat and water vapor in the autumn and early winter seasons. If these warming trends continue, they will significantly affect the Arctic land cover and land use, also causing impacts on the global scale. The changes will occur in the natural land cover, with perhaps the greatest effects in that part of the Arctic where the land cover has already been modified by human activities. In many Arctic areas there has been a clear shift from the land use practiced by indigenous peoples to intensive exploitation of the land for commercial and industrial uses. New navigation routes across the Arctic Ocean shelf seas are broadly discussed. If and when implemented, these routes will change the Arctic land use and the life style of the population. The International Polar Year (IPY) program involving over 200 projects with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations is coming to its final stage. This book is a compilation of the studies which have been conducted in the framework of the NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change Program and which have been focused on the Arctic region of Northern Eurasia, although some comparisons are made with the results in North America. The region of interest in the current book is north of 60° latitude, specifically transitional forest-tundra and tundra zones.