Shrub Pub on climate sensitivity of tundra shrub growth!

The latest publication from the ShrubHub Network is published today in Nature Climate Change!  This is the culmination of an over five year effort to synthesize the growth of tundra shrubs at sites around the Arctic. We found high but variable temperature sensitivity of shrubs at sites around the tundra biome with higher climate sensitivity at sites with greater soil moisture and for taller shrubs (e.g., alders, willows) growing at their northern or upper elevational range edges.  Overall, the climate sensitivity of shrub growth was greatest at the boundary between the low and high Arctic, where permafrost is thawing and the majority of the global permafrost soil carbon pool is stored. Thus, the greatest climate responses of tundra shrubs might occur in the parts of the Arctic where the greatest climate change impacts and feedbacks are expected to occur.

Check it out at:
Climate sensitivity of shrub growth across the tundra biome

Press Releases
European Commission JRC
University of Alberta
Woods Hole Research Center
Université de Sherbrooke

Here are some of the media links as they roll in…
English:
BBC Science Hour
BBC Science in Action
CBC
Globe and Mail
Yahoo News
Physics Org
Reporting Climate Science
CTV News
Daily Mail

French:
Science Presse
La Tribune

German:
Die Welt
Stern
Der Standard
Science APA
Science Orf

Swedish:
forskning.se

shrubs_mountain.jpg
Tundra shrubs in the alpine of the Kluane Region of the Yukon Territory where we have just been conducting our fieldwork (see blog posts below).
Shrubrings
Annual growth rings, a.k.a “shrubrings” in a tundra willow used test the climate sensitivity of shrub growth.