Mapping Arctic Boreal Peatlands

This follows on East Anglia environment in a global context. A recent article, Peatlands across the Arctic are expanding as the climate warms, research shows  via @physorg_com, made me look to map data for that. I posted a fair bit on East Anglia peatlands in this blog. I also recently used polar Arctic basemaps N of 50°lat., like Arctic Waterfront, a measure of geopolitical stakes, amongst this blog's Arctic coverage. Next post is Mapping Arctic Boreal Peatlands, cont..

Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM Team 2003)

The Alaska Geobotany Center here introduces:

The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) is a geoecological map (front) of the entire Arctic with a unified legend (back). It is the first vegetation map of an entire global biome at a comparable resolution. It was funded by the US National Science Foundation (OPP-9908-829), the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey and the US Bureau of Land Management.

They posted the dataset here. I posted in slide 2 below the following listed here.

Global Peat Map

From their intro here (thanks to GRID-Arendal Permafrost Atlas for pointing me to them):

[Global Peatland Database online] provide the new Global Peatland Map 2.0 (GPM 2.0) using a bottom-up approach on the basis of >200 datasets in the Global Peatland Database compiled from multiple data sources over the last decade, along with our own field mapping campaigns to fill some major data gaps.

The GPM 2.0 was further updated during the development of the UNEP Global Peatlands Assessment in 2022. The GPM 2.0 covers 3.72 million km² ('peat dominated' land) and 2.08 million km² ('peat in soil mosaic'), for a total of 5.8 million km² of global peatlands in a 0.5 km x 0.5 km grid while using an inclusive definition of peatlands. Of this global peatland area, 42% is located in North America, 32% in Asia, 10% in Europe, and the remaining 16% across South America, Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, and Oceania.

 Image data available here. That forms slide 3 of the presentation below, with the stats listed above.

The Boreal–Arctic Wetland and Lake Dataset (BAWLD)

The most intriguing however is Copernicus satellite data here. It's in a 0.5° by 0.5° format that translates to 55 km. or 35 mi. to the side in North Pole Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area coordinates. They offer  fractional land cover estimates as per their abstract here:

The Boreal and Arctic Wetland and Lake Dataset (BAWLD) provides estimates of fractional land cover of 19 land cover classes within 0.5° ×0.5° grid cells. The total area of the BAWLD domain is 25 500 000 kilometers squared (km2), i.e. 17% of the global land surface. The domain includes the boreal and tundra biomes, as well as areas of rocks and glaciers at greater than 50° North (N). The dataset is comprised of 23,469 0.5° ×0.5° grid cells. Each grid cell includes information on the fractional cover of five wetland classes, seven lake classes, three river classes, along with glacier, rockland, tundra, and boreal forest classes. Estimates of land cover fractional extents are based on an expert assessment, and a subsequent extrapolation to the full study region using random forest analysis. The dataset also includes an assessment of the uncertainty of the fractional cover estimates, represented by the 95% high and low estimates for fractional land cover. Each grid cell is further classified as one of fifteen “wetscapes”, which are defined by a characteristic land cover composition.

These form the remaining slides of the presentation below (press on the ladder - 3 vertical dots - to enter full-screen).

Trends of Thermal, Wetness, and Vegetative Change in the Circumpolar Arctic

When looking for updates and trends w.r.t. Climate Change, none appear to be planned for the above. I was however pointed in this direction, and I asked for permission to access the datasets here.

Overlay these trends on VEGPHYS in ArcGIS Pro to detect shrubification (VEGPHYS 4–16 shifts) in warming hotspots; e.g., positive ALT trends correlate with tussock tundra decline (VEGPHYS 8). Download from ORNL DAAC for pan-Arctic analysis up to 2020.

I'll be certain to extend the presentation below when possible. All maps are in Esri ArcGIS Pro Standard by the author. They are under Creative Commons License as are my blog and all the data above.

Story Map

I cannot leave however without posting this... Enjoy!