Tundra ecosystems are changing fast in response to ongoing climate change and increased human pressures linked to land use changes. One derived phenomenon from these impacts is the northward shift in the distribution of species from southern latitudes, a process known as borealization. While borealization trends have long been recognized in marine Arctic ecosystems, few local studies have investigated parallel trends in terrestrial plant communities, and to date there are no assessments of biome-scale plant borealization. Using existing plot-level vegetation data from the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX+) network, this project will quantify plant borealization at a pan-Arctic scale and identify the main drivers contributing to this phenomenon. Specifically, we will measure to which extent borealization has already occurred, assess where borealization of plant communities is more likely to occur, and identify which plant species are more likely to drive borealization patterns.
This project is partly funded by a NERC UK-Iceland Arctic Science Partnership Scheme awarded to Mariana Garcia Criado and Isabel C Barrio. This project is a contribution to the CHARTER project funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme (grant agreement nr. 869471).
The project lead is Mariana Garcia Criado, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh.
