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Petter Pilesjö

Petter Pilesjö

Professor

Petter Pilesjö

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export from subarctic areas analyzed using a GIS/remote sensing approach

Author

  • Pearl MZOBE
  • Martin Berggren
  • Per Schubert
  • Petter Pilesjö
  • Andreas Persson

Summary, in English

Subarctic ecosystems are predicted to experience the fastest responses to climate change on the planet, with dramatically altered vegetation patterns, frost dynamics and hydrological flow paths. The resulting change in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export to river systems is poorly known, but reports of rising DOC in northern surface waters have led to widespread speculations on a possible climate-induced freshwater ‘brownification’. In this study we explore the possibility of using the Normalized Vegetation Difference Index (NDVI) together with easily available topographical indices to model the DOC release into first-order streams, focusing on a subarctic area of Sweden (Stordalen) with discontinuous permafrost. We utilise earth observation data in predicting changes in DOC export, and further combine these efforts with distributed modeling of hydrological flow paths to generate maps of stream DOC in a palsa landscape. Our preliminary results point to a largely unexplored potential of using GIS and Remote Sensing analysis to reconstruct and project the DOC export from subarctic catchments and its response to climate change.

Department/s

  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
  • Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
  • Centre for Geographical Information Systems (GIS Centre)
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2016

Language

English

Document type

Conference paper: abstract

Topic

  • Earth and Related Environmental Sciences

Conference name

ASLO Summer meeting, 2016

Conference date

2016-06-05 - 2016-06-10

Conference place

Santa Fé, United States

Status

Published