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Title: Gross primary production responses to warming, elevated CO 2 , and irrigation: quantifying the drivers of ecosystem physiology in a semiarid grassland

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13602· OSTI ID:1349600
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7];  [8];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];  [16]
  1. Lancaster Environment Centre (United Kingdom)
  2. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems; Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences
  3. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Inst.
  5. Macquarie Univ., NSW (Australia). Dept. of Biological Sciences
  6. Univ. of Western Sydney, NSW (Australia). Hawkesbury Inst. for the Environment
  7. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Dept. of Botany
  8. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Natural Resource Ecology Lab.
  9. Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France). Lab. des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE)
  10. Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom). College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences
  11. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Ocean and Atmosphere, Aspendale, Vic. (Australia)
  12. Max Planck Inst. for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany). Biogeochemical Integration Dept.
  13. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences
  14. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt (Germany)
  15. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Dept. of Microbiology & Plant Biology; East China Normal Univ. (ECNU), Shanghai (China). Research Center for Global Change and Ecological Forecasting
  16. Univ. of Western Sydney, NSW (Australia). Hawkesbury Inst. for the Environment; Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Dept. of Botany
+ Show Author Affiliations

Abstract Determining whether the terrestrial biosphere will be a source or sink of carbon (C) under a future climate of elevated CO 2 ( eCO 2 ) and warming requires accurate quantification of gross primary production ( GPP ), the largest flux of C in the global C cycle. We evaluated 6 years (2007–2012) of flux‐derived GPP data from the Prairie Heating and CO 2 Enrichment ( PHACE ) experiment, situated in a grassland in Wyoming, USA . The GPP data were used to calibrate a light response model whose basic formulation has been successfully used in a variety of ecosystems. The model was extended by modeling maximum photosynthetic rate ( A max ) and light‐use efficiency ( Q ) as functions of soil water, air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, vegetation greenness, and nitrogen at current and antecedent (past) timescales. The model fits the observed GPP well ( R 2  = 0.79), which was confirmed by other model performance checks that compared different variants of the model (e.g. with and without antecedent effects). Stimulation of cumulative 6‐year GPP by warming (29%, P  = 0.02) and eCO 2 (26%, P  = 0.07) was primarily driven by enhanced C uptake during spring (129%, P  = 0.001) and fall (124%, P  = 0.001), respectively, which was consistent across years. Antecedent air temperature (Tair ant ) and vapor pressure deficit ( VPD ant ) effects on A max (over the past 3–4 days and 1–3 days, respectively) were the most significant predictors of temporal variability in GPP among most treatments. The importance of VPD ant suggests that atmospheric drought is important for predicting GPP under current and future climate; we highlight the need for experimental studies to identify the mechanisms underlying such antecedent effects. Finally, posterior estimates of cumulative GPP under control and eCO 2 treatments were tested as a benchmark against 12 terrestrial biosphere models ( TBM s). The narrow uncertainties of these data‐driven GPP estimates suggest that they could be useful semi‐independent data streams for validating TBMs.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; DE‐SC0006973
OSTI ID:
1349600
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1400811
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 8; ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 35 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (7)

Quantifying antecedent climatic drivers of tree growth in the Southwestern US journal October 2017
ORCHIDEE-SOM: modeling soil organic carbon (SOC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) dynamics along vertical soil profiles in Europe journal January 2018
Data from: Gross primary production responses to warming, elevated CO2, and irrigation: quantifying the drivers of ecosystem physiology in a semiarid grassland dataset January 2020
Elevated CO2 and Warming Altered Grassland Microbial Communities in Soil Top-Layers journal August 2018
Rainfall pulse response of carbon fluxes in a temperate grass ecosystem in the semiarid Loess Plateau journal October 2018
Legacies of more frequent drought in ponderosa pine across the western United States journal July 2019
ORCHIDEE-SOM: Modeling soil organic carbon (SOC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) dynamics along vertical soil profiles in Europe posted_content November 2017

Linked Research (1)

Figures / Tables (22)

Figure 1(p. 30)figure Figure 1
Figure 2(p. 31)figure Figure 2
Figure 3(p. 32)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 33)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 34)figure Figure 5
Table 1(p. 35)table Table 1
Table 2(p. 36)table Table 2
Table 3(p. 37)table Table 3
Figure S1(p. 47)figure Figure S1
Figure S2a(p. 48)figure Figure S2a
Figure S2b(p. 49)figure Figure S2b
Figure S2c(p. 50)figure Figure S2c
Figure S3(p. 51)figure Figure S3
Figure S4(p. 52)figure Figure S4
Table S1(p. 53)table Table S1
Table S2(p. 53)table Table S2
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Table S4a(p. 57)table Table S4a
Table S4b(p. 57)table Table S4b
Table S4c(p. 58)table Table S4c

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