Agriculture in the boreal and Arctic regions is perceived as marginal, low intensity and inadequate to satisfy the needs of local communities, but another perspective is that northern agriculture has untapped potential to increase the local supply of food and even contribute to the global food system. Policies across northern jurisdictions target the expansion and intensification of agriculture, contextualized for the diverse social settings and market foci in the north. However, the rapid pace of climate change means that traditional methods of adapting cropping systems and developing infrastructure and regulations for this region cannot keep up with climate change impacts. Moreover, the anticipated conversion of northern cold-climate natural lands to agriculture risks a loss of up to 76% of the carbon stored in vegetation and soils, leading to further environmental impacts. The sustainable development of northern agriculture requires local solutions supported by locally relevant policies. There is an obvious need for the rapid development of a transdisciplinary, cross-jurisdictional, long-term knowledge development, and dissemination program to best serve food needs and an agricultural economy in the boreal and Arctic regions while minimizing the risks to global climate, northern ecosystems and communities.

The latitudinal gradient of the start of the growing season (SOS) and the end of the growing season (EOS) were quantified in Alaska (61°N to 71°N) using satellite-based and ground-based datasets. The Alaskan evergreen needleleaf forests are sparse and the understory vegetation has a substantial impact on the satellite signal. We evaluated SOS and EOS of understory and tundra vegetation using time-lapse camera images. From the comparison of three SOS algorithms for determining SOS from two satellite datasets (SPOT-VEGETATION and Terra-MODIS), we found that the satellite-based SOS timing was consistent with the leaf emergence of the forest understory and tundra vegetation. The ensemble average of SOS over all satellite algorithms can be used as a measure of spring leaf emergence for understory and tundra vegetation. In contrast, the relationship between the ground-based and satellite-based EOSs was not as strong as that of SOS both for boreal forest and tundra sites because of the large biases between those two EOSs (19 to 26days). The satellite-based EOS was more relevant to snowfall events than the senescence of understory or tundra. The plant canopy radiative transfer simulation suggested that 84–86% of the NDVI seasonal amplitude could be a reasonable threshold for the EOS determination. The latitudinal gradients of SOS and EOS evaluated by the satellite and ground data were consistent and the satellite-derived SOS and EOS were 3.5 to 5.7daysdegree−1 and −2.3 to −2.7daysdegree−1, which corresponded to the spring (May) temperature sensitivity of −2.5 to −3.9days°C−1 in SOS and the autumn (August and September) temperature sensitivity of 3.0 to 4.6days°C−1 in EOS. This demonstrates the possible impact of phenology in spruce forest understory and tundra ecosystems in response to climate change in the warming Artic and sub-Arctic regions