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Snow cover is a neglected driver of Arctic biodiversity loss

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 997–1001 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Snow has far-reaching effects on ecosystem processes and biodiversity in high-latitude ecosystems, but these have been poorly considered in climate change impact models1,2. Here, to forecast future trends in species occurrences and richness, we fitted species–environment models with temperature data from three climate scenarios and simulated up to a 40% decrease in snow cover duration (SCD)3. We used plot-scale data on 273 vascular plant, moss and lichen species in 1,200 study sites spanning a wide range of environmental conditions typical for mountainous Arctic landscapes (within 165 km2). According to the models, a rise in temperature increased overall species richness and caused only one species to lose all suitable habitat. In contrast, a shorter SCD tempered the effect of increasing temperature on species richness and led to accelerated rates of species’ local extinctions after a tipping point at 20–30% SCD decrease. All three species groups showed similar extinction rates but contrasting species richness responses. Our simulations indicate that future biodiversity patterns in Arctic regions are highly dependent on the evolution of snow conditions. Climate impact models that ignore the effects of snow cover change may provide biased biodiversity projections, with potentially erratic implications for Arctic nature conservation planning.

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Fig. 1: The study area and example habitats along the SCD gradient.
Fig. 2: Projected species richness patterns and number of local extinctions.
Fig. 3: The evolution of the rate of extinctions and average species richness.
Fig. 4: The occurrence predictions for three example species under current and future snow and summer temperature conditions.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for research support provided by the Academy of Finland (project no. 1286950), Kone Foundation and Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica. We thank A. Niskanen for her language check and all members of the Biogeoclimate modelling laboratory for assistance with the field work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Pekka Niittynen & Miska Luoto

  2. Biodiversity Centre, Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland

    Risto K. Heikkinen

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  1. Pekka Niittynen
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Contributions

P.N., M.L. and R.K.H. designed the research. P.N. gathered the data, performed the analysis and wrote the first draft of the paper. All of the authors contributed to writing the paper.

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Correspondence to Pekka Niittynen.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods (Notes 1–4). Supplementary Results (Notes 1–3). Supplementary Figures 1–11. Supplementary Tables 1–4

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Niittynen, P., Heikkinen, R.K. & Luoto, M. Snow cover is a neglected driver of Arctic biodiversity loss. Nature Clim Change 8, 997–1001 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0311-x

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