Climate-Ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra

This is chapter 2 of the State of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report 2019 (https://sios-svalbard.org/SESS_Issue2).

COAT is a response to the urgent international calls for establishment of observation systems that make it possible to gain insight into how climate impacts Arctic tundra. COAT Svalbard is an essential component of SIOS and serves to optimise and integrate the ecosystem-based terrestrial monitoring.

Variations from year to year and differences from place to place make long-term monitoring essential to support the complex decisions involved in conservation, management and policymaking. The COAT approach is holistic, covering entire ecosystems by integrating information about living and non-living factors over time and space, with clearly defined monitoring goals.

Monitoring modules within COAT Svalbard track five key climate-sensitive food web pathways as well as climate parameters that determine how those pathways function (www.coat.no). Each module is described in terms of expected direct and indirect relationships between organisms in the food web pathways, and how climate and management interventions might influence these interactions. The programme is implemented according to a peer-reviewed Science Plan with a solid foundation in the scientific literature. COAT Svalbard focuses on two contrasting Arctic regions: Nordenskiöld Land and Brøggerhalvøya and surrounding areas. The vertebrate populations being monitored in these areas currently appear to be stable or growing. However, the lack of long-term monitoring of the vegetation communities on which these animals rely hinders understanding of bottom-up processes within the food web. COAT aims to fill these gaps and provide new insight into how climate change impacts High Arctic tundra ecosystems.