UNDERSTANDING NORTHERN
LATITUDE VEGETATION
GREENING AND BROWNING
PROCEEDINGS OF A WORKSHOP
April Melvin, Rapporteur
Polar Research Board
Board on Life Sciences
Division on Earth and Life Studies
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu
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This activity was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey (#G17AC00248). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-49177-6
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-49177-0
Digital Object Identifier: https://org/10.17226/25423
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Understanding Northern Latitude Vegetation Greening and Browning: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://org/10.17226/25423.
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COMMITTEE ON UNDERSTANDING NORTHERN LATITUDE VEGETATION GREENING AND BROWNING—A WORKSHOP
SCOTT GOETZ (Chair), Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff
ELIZABETH CAMPBELL, Natural Resources Canada, Victoria, BC
EUGENIE S. EUSKIRCHEN, University of Alaska Fairbanks
BENJAMIN POULTER, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Staff
APRIL MELVIN, Program Officer
LAURIE GELLER, Program Manager
KEEGAN SAWYER, Senior Program Officer
ROB GREENWAY, Program Associate
RITA GASKINS, Administrative Coordinator
POLAR RESEARCH BOARD
JULIE BRIGHAM-GRETTE (Chair), University of Massachusetts Amherst
KATEY WALTER ANTHONY, University of Alaska Fairbanks
BETSY BAKER, North Pacific Research Board and Vermont Law School, Anchorage, AK
LAWSON BRIGHAM, University of Alaska Fairbanks
JOHN CASSANO, University of Colorado Boulder
SARAH B. DAS, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA
MICHAEL N. GOOSEFF, University of Colorado Boulder
BRENDAN KELLY, University of Alaska Fairbanks
JOHN KOVAC, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
CLAIRE L. PARKINSON, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
RAFE POMERANCE, Independent Consultant, Washington, DC
THEODORE A. SCAMBOS, University of Colorado Boulder
MARGARET WILLIAMS, World Wildlife Fund, Anchorage, AK
Staff
AMANDA STAUDT, Board Director
LAURIE GELLER, Program Manager
LAUREN EVERETT, Program Officer
APRIL MELVIN, Program Officer
RITA GASKINS, Administrative Coordinator
BOARD ON LIFE SCIENCES
JAMES P. COLLINS (Chair), Arizona State University, Tempe
A. ALONSO AGUIRRE, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
ENRIQUETA C. BOND, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Marshall, VA
DOMINIQUE BROSSARD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
ROGER D. CONE, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
NANCY D. CONNELL, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Baltimore, MD
SEAN M. DECATUR, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
JOSEPH R. ECKER, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, La Jolla, CA
SCOTT V. EDWARDS, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
GERALD L. EPSTEIN, National Defense University, Washington, DC
ROBERT J. FULL, University of California, Berkeley
ELIZABETH HEITMAN, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
MARY E. MAXON, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA
JILL P. MESIROV, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
ROBERT NEWMAN, Independent Consultant, Washington, DC
STEPHEN J. O’BRIEN, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
CLAIRE POMEROY, Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, New York, NY
MARY E. POWER, University of California, Berkeley
SUSAN RUNDELL SINGER, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL
LANA SKIRBOLL, Sanofi, Washington, DC
DAVID R. WALT, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Staff
FRAN SHARPLES, Director
LIDA ANESTIDOU, Senior Program Officer
KATHERINE BOWMAN, Senior Program Officer
JESSICA DE MOUY, Senior Program Assistant
ANDREA HODGSON, Program Officer
JO HUSBANDS, Scholar/Senior Project Director
KEEGAN SAWYER, Senior Program Officer
AUDREY THEVENON, Program Officer
KOSSANA YOUNG, Senior Program Assistant
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Acknowledgments
This Proceedings of a Workshop was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published proceedings as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings:
Uma Bhatt, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Scott Goetz, Northern Arizona University
Elyn Humphreys, Carleton University
Junchang Ju, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the proceedings nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by John Walsh, University of Alaska Fairbanks. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this proceedings was carried out in accordance with standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the rapporteur and the National Academies.
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Contents
Trends and Drivers of Greening and Browning
Disturbances as Drivers of Change
Implications of Vegetation Change
Methods Used to Evaluate Change and Detect Trends
Remote Sensing of Greening and Browning
New Remote Sensing Technologies to Study Greening and Browning
Field-Based Measurement of Greening and Browning
Linking Remote Sensing and Field-Based Measurements
Reconciling Trends Across Measurement Approaches and Scales
NDVI as the Metric for Evaluating Greening and Browning
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