Speaking: Logan Berner, Northern Arizona University
The Permafrost Discovery Gateway hosts a monthly webinar series on a Thursday at 09:00 Alaska time. The webinar aims to 1) connect the international science community interested in big data remote sensing of permafrost landscapes, and 2) provide the Permafrost Discovery Gateway development team with end-user stories (by the presenter and webinar participants), such as exploring tools the community needs to create and explore big data.
Abstract
In the Arctic, climate warming has led plants to colonize previously barren ground and existing plant communities to become more productive and often shrubbier. There has also been an overall increase in plant biomass that can impact northern human communities, wildlife, and biogeochemical cycles. Despite its importance, the current amount, distribution, and composition of plant biomass remains highly uncertain across the Arctic, let alone changes that occurred during recent decades. Our project focuses on mapping total plant biomass and shrub biomass across the Arctic using field measurements, Landsat satellite observations, and ancillary environmental datasets. We are synthesizing existing field measurements from across the Arctic and linking these measurements with wall-to-wall Landsat data processed using Google Earth Engine. Over the next two years, we will develop next-generation plant biomass maps for the Arctic that can be used to better understand and help manage a broad suite of climate change impacts.