In just a few decades, the Arctic's vegetation cover will grow by 50%

Apr 1, 2013 07:41 GMT  ·  By
New study warns the Arctic's vegetation cover will only increase as the years go by
   New study warns the Arctic's vegetation cover will only increase as the years go by

A study published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change towards the middle of March made a case of how global warming and climate change would eventually translate into the Arctic's getting increasingly greener.

A new research whose findings were made available to the public in the same journal this March 31 sheds new lights on the matter at hand, and argues that, in just a few decades, the Arctic's vegetation cover will most likely increase by a whopping 50%.

The scientists who pieced together this second study concerning the ways in which the Arctic landscape will change as the years go by base their claims on data collected while testing a climate warming scenario for the 2050s, EurekAlert says.

According to the same source, the predicted increase in the Arctic's vegetation has to be linked to the fact that, as average temperatures worldwide continue to increase, the trees and shrubs in this part of the world will find it easier to grab hold of new lands.

“Such widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation would have impacts that reverberate through the global ecosystem,” warns study lead author Richard Pearson.

“These impacts would extend far beyond the Arctic region. For example, some species of birds seasonally migrate from lower latitudes and rely on finding particular polar habitats, such as open space for ground-nesting,” Richard Pearson further explained.

What the researchers fear is that, all things considered, these changes in the Arctic's vegetation cover will affect not just local wildlife, but will also cause our planet's climate to warm even further.

Thus, they theorize that, once the sun's light starts hitting more so-called dark patches of greenery rather than snow-covered areas, ever-increasing amounts of light will get absorbed.

This will in turn lead to an increase in local and even global temperatures.

“By incorporating observed relationships between plants and albedo, we show that vegetation distribution shifts will result in an overall positive feedback to climate that is likely to cause greater warming than has previously been predicted,” study co-author Scott Goetz wished to emphasize.