Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades

Zeng, Zhenzhong; Piao, Shilong; Li, Laurent Z.  X.; Zhou, Liming; Ciais, Philippe; Wang, Tao; Li, Yue; Lian, Xu; Wood, Eric F.; Friedlingstein, Pierre; Mao, Jiafu; Estes, Lyndon D.; Myneni, Ranga B.; Peng, Shushi; Shi, Xiaoying; Seneviratne, Sonia I.; Wang, Yingping

doi:10.1038/nclimate3299

Title: Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades

Journal Article · Mon May 22 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Nature Climate Change

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3299· OSTI ID:1376650

Zeng, Zhenzhong ^[1]; Piao, Shilong ^[2];

^[3]; Zhou, Liming ^[4]; Ciais, Philippe ^[5]; Wang, Tao ^[6]; Li, Yue ^[1]; Lian, Xu ^[1];

^[7];

^[8];

^[9];

^[10]; Myneni, Ranga B. ^[11];

^[1];

^[9];

^[12]; Wang, Yingping ^[13]

Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Sorbonne Univ. Paris (France)
State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Albany, NY (United States)
Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Clark Univ., Worcester, MA (United States)
Boston Univ., MA (United States)
ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Aspendale, VIC (Australia)

The surface air temperature response to vegetation changes has been studied for the extreme case of land-cover change; yet, it has never been quantified for the slow but persistent increase in leaf area index (LAI) observed over the past 30 years (Earth greening). We isolate the fingerprint of increasing LAI on surface air temperature using a coupled land–atmosphere global climate model prescribed with satellite LAI observations. Furthermore, we found that the global greening has slowed down the rise in global land-surface air temperature by 0.09 ± 0.02 °C since 1982. This net cooling effect is the sum of cooling from increased evapotranspiration (70%), changed atmospheric circulation (44%), decreased shortwave transmissivity (21%), and warming from increased longwave air emissivity (-29%) and decreased albedo (-6%). The global cooling originated from the regions where LAI has increased, including boreal Eurasia, Europe, India, northwest Amazonia, and the Sahel. Increasing LAI did not, but, significantly change surface air temperature in eastern North America and East Asia, where the effects of large-scale atmospheric circulation changes mask local vegetation feedbacks. Overall, the sum of biophysical feedbacks related to the greening of the Earth mitigated 12% of global land-surface warming for the past 30 years.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

DOE Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; SC0012534

OSTI ID:: 1376650

Journal Information:: Nature Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 6; ISSN 1758-678X

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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