Eyes on Earth Episode 72 – Northward Shift of the Boreal Forest

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Summary: The boreal forest, or taiga, stretches across nearly 5.7 million square miles in the northern latitudes. That’s nearly a quarter of all forested lands in the world. This sprawling biome also happens to be one of the most rapidly shifting in the face of climate change. Many studies have suggested that the taiga tree line is moving northward as temperatures warm worldwide, edging itself into the colder tundra. On this episode of Eyes On Earth, we hear from Professor Logan Berner, part of team at Northern Arizona University’s Global Earth Observation and Dynamics of Ecosystems (GEODE) Lab that used USGS Landsat satellite data to track and quantify the northward shift of the boreal tree line.

Guests: Logan Berner, assistant research professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS), Northern Arizona University

Host: John Hult

Producer: John Hult

Release date: April 18, 2022

More on Landsat and the Boreal Forest

• New study shows that Earth’s coldest forests are shifting northward with climate change
• Northern Arizona University’s Global Earth Observation and Dynamics of Ecosystems (GEODE) Lab
• NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment — ABoVE