Activity Description:
Vegetation is a key indicator of Arctic terrestrial change. Priority terrestrial science topics for ICARP IV require improved circumpolar maps and knowledge of the Arctic vegetation and environmental controls to monitor and model changes to biodiversity; biomass and changing greening patterns; soil carbon stocks and emissions; effects to distribution patterns of water, snow, and permafrost; cumulative impacts of infrastructure and climate change; impacts to indigenous livelihoods; and global climate and ocean circulation patterns.
We bring together several inter-related Arctic Vegetation Science tasks to develop a coordinated approach to archive, classify, map, and analyze Arctic vegetation, with an eye toward IPY 2032/2033:
- Develop a Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Science Group to work with other Arctic Terrestrial groups and initiatives to coordinate approaches to sample, describe, monitor, and analyze Arctic vegetation, and to develop the next generation of Arctic vegetation scientists.
- Update the Pan Arctic Species List to include latest additions and changes to nomenclature for vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, and lichens;
- Develop standards and protocols for plot-based vegetation and environmental sampling at multiple scales, using traditional ground-based approaches and new technology, such as drone-based images, very-high resolution satellite imagery, LiDAR, artificial intelligence, and advanced pattern-recognition methods.
- Continue to rescue legacy plot data sets; complete regional vegetation-plot archives and classifications in Arctic Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Europe, and Russia; and complete unification of the regional archives and classifications into a Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA) and Classification (AVC) with crosswalks to national approaches.
- Continue to revise the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) based on new information; and revive the Circumboreal Vegetation Mapping (CBVM) effort to make a map of the northern boreal subzone, focusing on treeline to join the Arctic and northern Boreal regions in a single vegetation map.
Main Organiser:
Donald A. "Skip" Walker (University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA)
Type of Activity:
- Workshop,
- Webinar,
- Project,
- Research activity for ICARP IV decade ( 2025-2034)
Dates and Locations:
-
Workshop / Sessions during the ASSW 2025 / ICARP IV Summit 2025 in Boulder, Colorado, USA from 20 - 28 March 2025.
-
The extended activity between 2025 and 2034
Open / Closed Activity:
In-Person / Online, Open