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Regional Atmospheric CO2 Inversion Reveals Seasonal and Geographic Differences in Amazon Net Biome ExchangeUnderstanding tropical rainforest carbon exchange and its response to heat and drought is critical for quantifying the effects of climate change on tropical ecosystems, including global climate carbon feedbacks. Of particular importance for the global carbon budget is net biome exchange of CO2 with the atmosphere (NBE), which represents nonfire carbon fluxes into and out of biomass and soils. Subannual and sub-Basin Amazon NBE estimates have relied heavily on process-based biosphere models, despite lack of model agreement with plot-scale observations. We present a new analysis of airborne measurements that reveals monthly, regional-scale (Approx.1-8 x 10(exp -6) km2) NBE variations. We develop a regional atmospheric CO2 inversion that provides the first analysis of geographic and temporal variability in Amazon biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange and that is minimally influenced by biosphere model-based first guesses of seasonal and annual mean fluxes. We find little evidence for a clear seasonal cycle in Amazon NBE but do find NBE sensitivity to aberrations from long-term mean climate. In particular, we observe increased NBE (more carbon emitted to the atmosphere) associated with heat and drought in 2010, and correlations between wet season NBE and precipitation (negative correlation) and temperature (positive correlation). In the eastern Amazon, pulses of increased NBE persisted through 2011, suggesting legacy effects of 2010 heat and drought. We also identify regional differences in postdrought NBE that appear related to long-term water availability. We examine satellite proxies and find evidence for higher gross primary productivity (GPP) during a pulse of increased carbon uptake in 2011, and lower GPP during a period of increased NBE in the 2010 dry season drought, but links between GPP and NBE changes are not conclusive. These results provide novel evidence of NBE sensitivity to short-term temperature and moisture extremes in the Amazon, where monthly and sub-Basin estimates have not been previously available.
Document ID
20170003320
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Alden, Caroline B.
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Miller, John B.
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Boulder, CO, United States)
Gatti, Luciana V.
(Cidade Univ. Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Gloor, Manuel M.
(Leeds Univ. United Kingdom)
Guan, Kaiyu
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Michalak, Anna M.
(Carnegie Institution for Science Stanford, CA, United States)
van der Laan-Luijkx, Ingrid
(Wageningen Univ. Wageningen, Netherlands)
Touma, Danielle
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Andrews, Arlyn
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Boulder, CO, United States)
Basso, Luana G.
(Cidade Univ. Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Correia, Caio S.C.
(Cidade Univ. Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Domingues, Lucas G.
(Cidade Univ. Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Joiner, Joanna
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Krol, Maarten C.
(Wageningen Univ. Wageningen, Netherlands)
Lyapustin, Alexei I.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Peters, Wouter
(Wageningen Univ. Wageningen, Netherlands)
Shiga, Yoichi P.
(Carnegie Institution for Science Stanford, CA, United States)
Thoning, Kirk
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Boulder, CO, United States)
van der Velde, Ivarr
(Groningen Rijksuniv. Netherlands)
van Leeuwen, Thijs T.
(Utrecht Univ. Utrecht, Netherlands)
Yadav, Vineet
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Diffenbaugh, Noah S.
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
April 11, 2017
Publication Date
April 28, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: Global Change Biology
Publisher: Wiley
Volume: 22
Issue: 10
ISSN: 1354-1013
e-ISSN: 1365-2486
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Numerical Analysis
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN41485
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX12AM90G
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
precipitation
negative correlation
satellite proxies

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