Lead Institution: b.geos
Work Package Leader: Dr. Annett Bartsch.
Objectives
The goal of this Work Package is to improve the capacity to identify biodiversity changes and associated reindeer pasture impacts, as well as how biodiversity and grazing regimes will change in relationship to the cryosphere and climate change. Earth observation data and relevant satellite imagery will be linked to ground observation networks, so called ‘ground truthing‘, leading to:
- a full characterization of all seasonal Arctic terrestrial environments for relevant observable parameters
- quantify biodiversity and rangeland indicator changes from local to regional scales at selected sites
- Establishment of a pan-Arctic database of decadal scale biodiversity trends.
Classic Yamal peninsula landscape, summer. Image credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by b.geos. 
Copernicus Sentinel-2 acquisition from central Yamal from winter 2016 (data source: ESA) and ALOS-2 PALSAR from winter 2016 (data source JAXA). The lakes are covered with ice and snow. Visible circular patterns can occur in Arctic lakes. (data preparation by b.geos) Lakes on central Yamal, Western Siberia, Russia (picture A. Bartsch 2015)
Contains modified Copernicus data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO Read more about this image and changes in permafrost here.
This Work Package aims to create fundamental datasets in order to understand and quantify terrestrial biodiversity and rangeland use changes within the last forty years.
This Work Package will characterize CHARTER focus areas with varying human pressure on Arctic socio-ecological systems and produce many pan-Arctic datasets on drivers of change, with a focus on changes in the cryosphere, such as sea ice loss, rain-on-snow events, snow cover duration and permafrost active layer, over multiple decades. The geographical focus will be on Fennoscandia, Svalbard, and Northwest Russia.
Deliverables:
Deliverables expected from this Work Package include an improved characterization of observables of drivers and impacts on a pan-Arctic scale, an establishment of a pan-Arctic database on biodiversity drivers and indicators and its documentation, with an emphasis on the CHARTER focus area and besides publications, a review of cryosphere and biodiversity change observations from satellite data at circumpolar to regional scales. The lead institution is bgeos, based in Korneuburg, Austria and the academic lead is Dr. Annett Bartsch. Bartsch is also on faculty of the Austrian Polar Research Institute and you can read and see more about her work here.
CHARTER Researchers and Associates, WP 1
| Annett Bartsch | bgeos, Austria; Polar Research Institute | Researchgate |
| George Pointer | bgeos, Austria |
| Hans Tommervik | Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Norway |
| Jarle Bjerke | Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Norway |
| Eirik Finne | Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Norway |
| Rasmys Erlandsson | Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Norway |
| Andrei Marin | Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Norway |
| Marc Macias Fauria | University of Oxford, UK |
| Marcus Spiegel | University of Oxford, UK |
| Andrew Martin | University of Oxford, UK |
| Christian Rixen | Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research , Switzerland |
| Julienne Stroeve | Uni of Cambridge, UK |
| Sanggyun Lee | Uni of Cambridge, UK |
| Timo Kumpula | University of Eastern Finland |Researchgate |
| Sonja Kivinen | Uni of Eastern Finland |
| Isla Myers-Smith | Uni of Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Mariana Criado | Uni of Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Aleksi Rasanen | Uni of Helsinki, Finland |
| Jussi Eronen | Uni of Helsinki, Finland |
| Tarmo Virtanen | Uni of Helsinki, Finland |
| Otto Habeck | Uni of Hamburg, Germany |
| Bruce Forbes | Uni of Lapland, Finland |
| Sirpa Rasmus | Uni of Lapland, Finland |
| Gabriela Schaepman | Uni of Zurich, Switzerland |
| Jacqueline Oehri | Uni of Zurich, Switzerland |
| Jin-Soo Kim | Uni of Zurich, Switzerland |
| Dorothee Ehrich | UiT Arctic Uni of Norway |
| Jeff Kerby | Uni of Aarhus, Denmark |
| Signe Normand | Uni of Aarhus, Denmark |
| Thomas Hoye | Uni of Aarhus, Denmark |
| Urs Treier | Uni of Aarhus, Denmark |
| Bjarke Madsen | Uni of Aarhus, Denmark |
| Anna Kontu | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Ioanna Merkouriadi | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Jouni Pulliainen | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Juha Lemmetyinen | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Juho Vehvilainen | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Jyrki Mattanen | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Kari Luojus | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Kimmo Rautiainen | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Leena Leppanen | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Matias Takala | Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland |
| Oliver Baines | Uni of Nottingham, UK |
| Anne Bjorkman | Uni of Gothenburg, Sweden |
Related Reading:
Berner, L.T., Massey, R., Jantz, P. Forbes, B.C. et al. Summer warming explains widespread but not uniform greening in the Arctic tundra biome. Nat Commun 11, 4621 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18479-5
Arctic Lakes from Space, by Annett Bartsch on the Space4Water portal.
Satellites yield insights into not so permanent permafrost. European Space Agency.
Pointner, Georg, Annett Bartsch, Bruce Forbes, and Timo Kumpula. 2018. “The Role Of Lake Size And Local Phenomena For Monitoring Ground-Fast Lake Ice”. International Journal Of Remote Sensing 39. Taylor & Francis: 1-27, . doi:10.1080/01431161.2018.1519281.
Resources:
Interested in the Arctic water bodies, lakes in the Arctic and how they can be monitored by satellites? RUS offer a free online course here, and Annett Bartsch is the instructor! The aim of RUS (Research and User Support for Sentinel Core products) Service is to promote the uptake of Copernicus data and to support the scaling up of R&D activities with Copernicus data.