Student: Charlotte Copp
Graduation date: May 2018
Capstone type: Thesis
Capstone project:
Warming, Vegetation, & Remote Sensing: The Use of NDVI to Track the Influence of Climate Change on Arctic and Alpine Plant Communities
Capstone file(s): Show file | Show file
The influence of climate change on earth systems as well as social and cultural systems is a pressing topic in many disciplines in the world today. The response of vegetation to climate change can alter biodiversity, land conservation, and human health. The Arctic is warming at a faster rate compared to the rest of the world and vegetation there can be used as a signal for a changing climate. Arctic vegetation also appears in the alpine zone of the White Mountains, New Hampshire and are bio-remnants of the last glacial period. In this research I ask, how will climate change alter arctic communities in Ísafjörður, Iceland and alpine communities in the White Mountains, New Hampshire? I used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, collected by satellites, to track climate responses at a global scale. I supported these findings with species observations in survey plots around two mountain tops in the White Mountains with alpine vegetation and one hillside in Iceland, with arctic vegetation. From this data I found that although there a similarities in species composition in these two locations, climate change will affect them in different way. This is due to a number of factors including anticipated changes in climate at the local scale, land management style, and microclimatic conditions. Collectively this research suggests that effects of climate warming on plants are not homogeneous across latitudes or altitude and local management should be applied to support species conservation a the regional scale