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Identifying multidisciplinary research gaps across Arctic terrestrial gradients

Virkkala, Anna-maria Ilona ; Abdi, Abdulhakim M LU orcid ; Luoto, Miska and Metcalfe, Daniel LU (2019) In Environmental Research Letters 14(12).
Abstract
Global warming is driving environmental change in the Arctic. However, our current understanding of this change varies strongly among different environmental disciplines and is limited by the number and distribution of field sampling locations. Here, we use a quantitative framework based on multivariate statistical modeling to present the current state of sampling across environmental disciplines in the Arctic. We utilize an existing database of georeferenced Arctic field studies to investigate how sampling locations and citations of disciplines are distributed across Arctic topographical, soil and vegetation conditions, and highlight critical regions for potential new research areas in different disciplines. Continuous permafrost... (More)
Global warming is driving environmental change in the Arctic. However, our current understanding of this change varies strongly among different environmental disciplines and is limited by the number and distribution of field sampling locations. Here, we use a quantitative framework based on multivariate statistical modeling to present the current state of sampling across environmental disciplines in the Arctic. We utilize an existing database of georeferenced Arctic field studies to investigate how sampling locations and citations of disciplines are distributed across Arctic topographical, soil and vegetation conditions, and highlight critical regions for potential new research areas in different disciplines. Continuous permafrost landscapes, and the northernmost Arctic bioclimatic zones are studied and cited the least in relation to their extent in many disciplines. We show that the clusters of sampling locations and citations are not uniform across disciplines. Sampling locations in Botany and Biogeochemistry cover environmental gradients the best, and Microbiology, Meteorology, Geosciences and Geographic Information Systems / Remote Sensing / Modeling have the worst coverage. We conclude that across all disciplines, more research is needed particularly in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, northern Greenland, central and eastern Siberia, and in some disciplines, in Canadian mainland, central Alaska, western Siberia and northern Taimyr region. We provide detailed maps of potential new sampling locations for each environmental discipline that consider multiple variables simultaneously. These results will help prioritize future research efforts, thus increasing our knowledge about the Arctic environmental change.
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Arctic, Climate research, Global change
in
Environmental Research Letters
volume
14
issue
12
article number
124061
publisher
IOP Publishing
external identifiers
  • scopus:85081655606
ISSN
1748-9326
DOI
10.1088/1748-9326/ab4291
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
65de6428-b6ed-4744-989c-b633e3a3c586
date added to LUP
2019-09-27 15:09:09
date last changed
2023-01-03 21:29:53
@article{65de6428-b6ed-4744-989c-b633e3a3c586,
  abstract     = {{Global warming is driving environmental change in the Arctic. However, our current understanding of this change varies strongly among different environmental disciplines and is limited by the number and distribution of field sampling locations. Here, we use a quantitative framework based on multivariate statistical modeling to present the current state of sampling across environmental disciplines in the Arctic. We utilize an existing database of georeferenced Arctic field studies to investigate how sampling locations and citations of disciplines are distributed across Arctic topographical, soil and vegetation conditions, and highlight critical regions for potential new research areas in different disciplines. Continuous permafrost landscapes, and the northernmost Arctic bioclimatic zones are studied and cited the least in relation to their extent in many disciplines. We show that the clusters of sampling locations and citations are not uniform across disciplines. Sampling locations in Botany and Biogeochemistry cover environmental gradients the best, and Microbiology, Meteorology, Geosciences and Geographic Information Systems / Remote Sensing / Modeling have the worst coverage. We conclude that across all disciplines, more research is needed particularly in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, northern Greenland, central and eastern Siberia, and in some disciplines, in Canadian mainland, central Alaska, western Siberia and northern Taimyr region. We provide detailed maps of potential new sampling locations for each environmental discipline that consider multiple variables simultaneously. These results will help prioritize future research efforts, thus increasing our knowledge about the Arctic environmental change.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Virkkala, Anna-maria Ilona and Abdi, Abdulhakim M and Luoto, Miska and Metcalfe, Daniel}},
  issn         = {{1748-9326}},
  keywords     = {{Arctic; Climate research; Global change}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
  title        = {{Identifying multidisciplinary research gaps across Arctic terrestrial gradients}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab4291}},
  doi          = {{10.1088/1748-9326/ab4291}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}