Spatial structure and process of arctic warming and land cover change in the feedback systems framework

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships between and among the various drivers of climate change that have both climatic and ecological consequences for vegetation and land cover change in arctic areas, particularly in arctic Alaska. It discusses the various facilitated observable vegetation and land cover changes in the Arctic. Also, it indicates that the drivers of both climatic and ecological changes in the Arctic are multi-faceted and operate in a system with both positive and negative feedbacks that largely results in further increases or decreases of the initial drivers of climatic and vegetation change mainly at the local and regional scales. It demonstrates that the impact of arctic warming on land cover change and the Arctic ecosystems is not unidirectional and one dimensional in nature but it represents a multi-directional and multi-dimensional forces operating in a feedback system