Plot-scale evidence of tundra vegetation change and links to recent summer warming (original) (raw)

Change history

In the version of this Letter originally published online, the affiliation for Craig E. Tweedie and Sandra Villareal was incorrect. This has been corrected in all versions of the Letter.

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Acknowledgements

We thank innumerable field technicians, graduate and undergraduate assistants for help with data collection, and parks, wildlife refuges, field stations and the local and indigenous people for the opportunity to conduct research on their land. Financial support for the synthesis was provided by the Canadian International Polar Year program and the US National Science Foundation; the field data collection was financially supported by the Australian Research Council, the Department of Sustainability and Environment (Australia), the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, ArcticNet (Canada), Environment Canada, the Northern Scientific Training program (Canada), the Polar Continental Shelf program (Canada), the Yukon Territorial Government (Canada), the Natural Sciences Division of the Danish Council for Independent Research, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, the ATANS grant program (EU), the Academy of Finland, the Icelandic Research Fund, the Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund (Japan), the Ministry of the Environment (Japan), the Dutch Polar program, the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Svalbard Society, the Norwegian Polar Institute, the European Commission (Framework 5; Norway), the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning, the US National Science Foundation, the US Long Term Ecological Research program, the US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2, Canada
    Sarah C. Elmendorf, Gregory H. R. Henry & Xanthe Walker
  2. Biology Department, Grand Valley State University, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, Michigan 49401, USA
    Robert D. Hollister & Jeremy L. May
  3. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, PO Box 461, Sweden
    Robert G. Björk & Ulf Molau
  4. Département de Chimie-Biologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec G9A 5H7, C.P. 500, Canada
    Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe & Esther Lévesque
  5. Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Institute for Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway
    Elisabeth J. Cooper
  6. Department of Systems Ecology, Institute of Ecological Science, VU University Amsterdam, NL-1081 HV, Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, The Netherlands
    Johannes H. C. Cornelissen & Ellen Dorrepaal
  7. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-4501, USA
    Thomas A. Day
  8. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Climate Impacts Research Centre, Umeå University, S-981 07 Abisko, Box 62, Sweden
    Ellen Dorrepaal
  9. Department of Geobotany, Biological Faculty, Moscow State Lomonosov University, 119991 Leninskie Gory 1/12, Moscow, Russia
    Tatiana G. Elumeeva & Vladimir G. Onipchenko
  10. Northern Conservation Division, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, 91780 Alaska Highway, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 5X7, Canada
    Mike Gill
  11. USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Jardı´n Botánico Sur, 1201 Calle Ceiba, Rı´o Piedras, Puerto Rico 00926-1119, USA
    William A. Gould & Joel A. Mercado-Dı´az
  12. Energy and Resources Group, University of California at Berkeley, 310 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    John Harte
  13. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
    David S. Hik, Saewan Koh & Isla H. Myers-Smith
  14. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway
    Annika Hofgaard
  15. Department of Biology, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University, El Paso, Texas 79968, USA
    David R. Johnson, Mark Lara, Craig E. Tweedie & Sandra Villareal
  16. Biology Department, University of Saskatchewan, 112 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7J 5N2, Canada
    Jill F. Johnstone & Xanthe Walker
  17. Institute of Biology, University of Iceland, Askja, Sturlugata 7, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland
    Ingibjörg Svala Jónsdóttir
  18. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 101 12th Avenue, Room 236, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701, USA
    Janet C. Jorgenson & Þóra Ellen Þórhallsdóttir
  19. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NO-1432 Ås, PO Box 5003, Norway
    Kari Klanderud
  20. Department of Ecosystem Science & Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA
    Julia A. Klein
  21. Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Hokkaido, Japan
    Gaku Kudo
  22. Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Urriðaholtsstræti 6-8, 210 Garðabær, Iceland
    Borgthor Magnússon
  23. Department of Biology, Terrestrial Ecology Section, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, DK-1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
    Anders Michelsen
  24. Center for Permafrost (CENPERM) Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
    Anders Michelsen
  25. Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, Florida 33199, USA
    Steven F. Oberbauer
  26. WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Fluelastrasse 11, 7260 Davos, Switzerland
    Christian Rixen, Tiffany Troxler & Sonja Wipf
  27. Department of Arctic Environment, NERI, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, DK-4000 Roskilde, Box 358, Denmark
    Niels Martin Schmidt
  28. The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
    Gaius R. Shaver
  29. Department of Environmental Science and Policy, One Shields Avenue, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
    Marko J. Spasojevic
  30. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Thule Institute, University of Oulu, Kirkkosaarentie 7, 91500 Muhos, Finland
    Anne Tolvanen
  31. Department of Agricultural Sciences, Centre for Applied Alpine Ecology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
    Carl-Henrik Wahren
  32. Michigan State University, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico 87557, PO Box 1380, USA
    Patrick J. Webber
  33. Biology Department, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska 99501, USA
    Jeffrey M. Welker

Authors

  1. Sarah C. Elmendorf
  2. Gregory H. R. Henry
  3. Robert D. Hollister
  4. Robert G. Björk
  5. Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe
  6. Elisabeth J. Cooper
  7. Johannes H. C. Cornelissen
  8. Thomas A. Day
  9. Ellen Dorrepaal
  10. Tatiana G. Elumeeva
  11. Mike Gill
  12. William A. Gould
  13. John Harte
  14. David S. Hik
  15. Annika Hofgaard
  16. David R. Johnson
  17. Jill F. Johnstone
  18. Ingibjörg Svala Jónsdóttir
  19. Janet C. Jorgenson
  20. Kari Klanderud
  21. Julia A. Klein
  22. Saewan Koh
  23. Gaku Kudo
  24. Mark Lara
  25. Esther Lévesque
  26. Borgthor Magnússon
  27. Jeremy L. May
  28. Joel A. Mercado-Dı´az
  29. Anders Michelsen
  30. Ulf Molau
  31. Isla H. Myers-Smith
  32. Steven F. Oberbauer
  33. Vladimir G. Onipchenko
  34. Christian Rixen
  35. Niels Martin Schmidt
  36. Gaius R. Shaver
  37. Marko J. Spasojevic
  38. Þóra Ellen Þórhallsdóttir
  39. Anne Tolvanen
  40. Tiffany Troxler
  41. Craig E. Tweedie
  42. Sandra Villareal
  43. Carl-Henrik Wahren
  44. Xanthe Walker
  45. Patrick J. Webber
  46. Jeffrey M. Welker
  47. Sonja Wipf

Contributions

All authors designed and/or collected data from monitoring studies and assisted in writing the paper; S.C.E., G.H.R.H. and R.D.H. took the lead in writing the paper; S.C.E. analysed the data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toSarah C. Elmendorf.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Elmendorf, S., Henry, G., Hollister, R. et al. Plot-scale evidence of tundra vegetation change and links to recent summer warming.Nature Clim Change 2, 453–457 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1465

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