New climate dataset describes changes in Arctic bioclimate

The new 72-year time series of various climate and event-type indices in the Arctic region will provide new opportunities for studying the terrestrial ecosystems of the world’s fastest-warming region.

Photo: Pekka Niittynen

In the last few decades, the changes to the climate caused by humanity have been most visible in the Arctic region. This has also affected the so-called bioclimate, i.e. the conditions that are particularly closely linked to biological functions. In addition to rising average temperatures, Arctic terrestrial ecosystems are being increasingly subjected to extreme weather phenomena, such as long-lasting heat waves or winter heat waves.

The ARCLIM (Bioclimatic Atlas of the Terrestrial Arctic) climate dataset, which is described in detail in Scientific Data, allows researchers study the incidence of weather and climate variables essential for the Arctic bioclimate from 1950 to the present.

Further information:

Researcher Mika Rantanen, Finnish Meteorological Institute, mika.rantanen@fmi.fi

Research Professor Juha Aalto, Finnish Meteorological Institute, juha.aalto@fmi.fi

Scientific article is available on Scientific Data.

Reference:

Rantanen, M., Kämäräinen, M., Niittynen, P., Phoenix, G. K., Lenoir, J., Maclean, I., Luoto, M., & Aalto, J. (2023). Bioclimatic atlas of the terrestrial Arctic. Scientific Data, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-01959-w.

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