Since its inception, the NGEE Arctic project has worked hard to develop and promote a culture of safety, respect, and inclusion. 

The Arctic is warming at a faster rate than any other biome on Earth, resulting in widespread changes in vegetation composition, structure, and function that have important feedbacks to the global climate system. 

The Arctic tundra biome has become a hot spot of global environmental change because the vegetation and permafrost soils are strongly influenced by warming air temperatures and declining sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. In the late 1990s, global satellite observations revealed a sharp increase in the apparent productivity of tundra vegetation, a phenomenon that has come to be known as Arctic greening. Arctic greening is dynamically linked with Earth’s changing climate, interacting in complex ways with permafrost thaw, snow and sea ice change, and disturbances. However, the greening trend has not been universal, and some areas in the Arctic are even experiencing an opposite browning trend in response to disturbance and extreme weather events.