Can we use cryosphere variables from Earth Observation as proxies for changes in the vegetation carbon uptake in the northern high latitudes?

Kristin is a senior researcher in remote sensing at the Geoinformatics Research Unit of the Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki (Finland).

She has studied geoecology at Potsdam University (Germany) and obtained her PhD from the Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg (Germany) on remote sensing of boreal forest phenology. Before joining the Finnish Environment Institute, she worked at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra (Italy).

Research objectives

The CryoBioLinks project will investigate linkages between cryosphere variables and the carbon uptake of vegetation and their changes in the northern high latitudes. It will utilize satellite observations on snow cover, soil freeze and thaw, land surface temperature, vegetation indices and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, together with in situ observations, to develop proxies on seasonal dynamics of photosynthesis and gross primary production of northern ecosystems.

Main objectives:

• Assess linkages between cryosphere variables and the carbon uptake of vegetation
• Analyse the correspondence of vegetation indices from Sentinel-3 and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence
• Develop and map new satellite proxy indicators for the vegetation carbon uptake in the northern high latitudes.

Read more in the research project sheet.