Publications

Wang, ZJ; Shang, YX; Li, ZC; Song, KS (2024). Analysis of taiga and tundra lake browning trends from 2002 to 2021 using MODIS data. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, 356, 120576.

Abstract
Lakes in taiga and tundra regions may be silently undergoing changes due to global warming. One of those changes is browning in lake color. The browning interacts with the carbon cycle, ecosystem dynamics, and water quality in freshwater systems. However, spatiotemporal variabilities of browning in these regions have not been well documented. Using MODIS remote sensing reflectance at near ultraviolet wavelengths from 2002 to 2021 on the Google Earth Engine platform, we quantified long-term browning trends across 7616 lakes (larger than 10 km(2)) in taiga and tundra biomes. These lakes showed an overall decreased trend in browning (Theil-Sen Slope = 0.00015), with similar to 36% of these lakes showing browning trends, and similar to 1% of these lakes showing statistically significant (p-value <0.05) browning trends. The browning trends more likely occurred in small lakes in high latitude, low ground ice content regions, where air temperature increased and precipitation decreased. While temperature is projected to increase in response to climate change, our results provide one means to understand how biogeochemical cycles and ecological dynamics respond to climate change.

DOI:
10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120576

ISSN:
1095-8630