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Precipitation and Carbon-Water Coupling Jointly Control the Interannual Variability of Global Land Gross Primary ProductionCarbon uptake by terrestrial ecosystems is increasing along with the rising of atmospheric CO2 concentration. Embedded in this trend, recent studies suggested that the interannual variability (IAV) of global carbon fluxes may be dominated by semi-arid ecosystems, but the underlying mechanisms of this high variability in these specific regions are not well known. Here we derive an ensemble of gross primary production (GPP) estimates using the average of three data-driven models and eleven process-based models. These models are weighted by their spatial representativeness of the satellite-based solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF). We then use this weighted GPP ensemble to investigate the GPP variability for different aridity regimes. We show that semi-arid regions contribute to 57% of the detrended IAV of global GPP. Moreover, in regions with higher GPP variability, GPP fluctuations are mostly controlled by precipitation and strongly coupled with evapotranspiration (ET). This higher GPP IAV in semi-arid regions is co-limited by supply (precipitation)-induced ET variability and GPP-ET coupling strength. Our results demonstrate the importance of semi-arid regions to the global terrestrial carbon cycle and posit that there will be larger GPP and ET variations in the future with changes in precipitation patterns and dryland expansion.
Document ID
20170001447
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Zhang, Yao
(Oklahoma Univ. Norman, OK, United States)
Xiao, Xiangming
(Fudan Univ. Shanghai, China)
Guanter, Luis
(GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam, Germany)
Zhou, Sha
(Tsinghua Univ. Beijing, China)
Ciais, Philippe
(Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Annecy-le-Vieux, France)
Joiner, Joanna
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Sitch, Stephen
(Exeter Univ. United Kingdom)
Wu, Xiaocui
(Oklahoma Univ. Norman, OK, United States)
Nabel, Julian
(Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Meteorologie Hamburg, Germany)
Dong, Jinwei
(Oklahoma Univ. Norman, OK, United States)
Kato, Etsushi
(Institute of Applied Energy Tokyo, Japan)
Jain, Atul K.
(Illinois Univ. Urbana, IL, United States)
Wiltshire, Andy
(MET Office (Meteorological Office) Exeter, United Kingdom)
Stocker, Benjamin D.
(Imperial Coll. of London London, United Kingdom)
Date Acquired
February 8, 2017
Publication Date
December 23, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: Scientific Reports
Publisher: Scientific Reports
Volume: 6
Issue: 1
ISSN: 2045-2322
Subject Category
Geosciences (General)
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN39044
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
chlorophyll fluorescence
gross primary productivity
vegetation
photosynthesis model
flux tower
absorbed PAR

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