Opposite permafrost responses to the recent greening in the Arctic regions
The vegetation influence on the Arctic permafrost is in controversy. We have investigated the Arctic vegetation change based on spaceborne observations and the permafrost responses to such vegetation change with the Community Land Model. The total Arctic shrub area and grass area remained from 2001 to 2010, while the habitats of these plants relocated in regional scale. The LAI increased in most part of Arctic. The simulations coupled with the vegetation changes retrieved from spaceborne observations show that the increasing plants protect the permafrost in Low Arctic, where the canopy shading effect is stronger than the air heating effect. While the vegetation in High Arctic play a role as the snow melter rather than the ground shader, by reducing the residual snow in the summer and the permafrost through significantly increased downward longwave radiation from the canopy.
