Fig. 7: Vegetation contrasting states found along the transect.

Along the latitudinal transect, vegetation ranges from very sparse and low polar desert vegetation to dense and tall, closed canopy boreal forest vegetation. Vegetation contrasting states are defined by the dominant structural characteristics of vegetation cover, namely height and growth form (herbs, forbs, shrubs, coniferous and deciduous trees), found on a landscape (30 × 30 km) characterized by a flat terrain (see Supplementary Note 1 for definitions).