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Title: Forests dominate the interannual variability of the North American carbon sink

Journal Article · · Environmental Research Letters
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [4]; ORCiD logo [7]
  1. Carnegie Inst. for Science, Stanford, CA (United States). Dept. of Global Ecology; Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  2. Carnegie Inst. for Science, Stanford, CA (United States). Dept. of Global Ecology
  3. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). National Snow and Ice Data Center. Cooperative Inst. for Research in Environmental Sciences
  4. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth Science Research Lab.
  5. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). Center for Ecosystem Science and Society
  6. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability; Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
  7. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Environmental Sciences Division

Understanding what drives the interannual variability (IAV) of the land carbon sink is crucial for improving future predictions of this important, yet uncertain, component of the climate system. While drivers of global and hemispheric-scale net ecosystem exchange (NEE) IAV have been investigated, our understanding of the drivers of NEE IAV at regional scales (e.g. sub-continental, biome-level) is quite poor. Here we explore the biome-level attribution and drivers of North American NEE using inverse estimates derived from a dense network of atmospheric CO2 observations. We find that deciduous broadleaf and mixed forests are the primary regions responsible for North American NEE IAV, which differs from the ecoregions identified for the globe and Northern Hemisphere. We also find that a suite of terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) do not agree on the dominant biome contributing to NEE IAV, with TBMs falling along an apparent spectrum ranging between those with IAV dominated primarily by forested ecosystems to those with IAV dominated by non-forested ecosystems. Furthermore, this regional trade-off in TBM NEE IAV is found to be linked to differing regional responses to environmental drivers among TBMs. This work displays the importance of extra-tropical forests in driving continental NEE IAV and also highlights the challenges and limitations of using TBMs to inform regional-scale carbon flux dynamics.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Carnegie Inst. for Science, Stanford, CA (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF) (United States); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (United States)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; AC09-08SR22470; AC02-05CH11231; FG02-06ER64315
OSTI ID:
1463982
Journal Information:
Environmental Research Letters, Journal Name: Environmental Research Letters Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 13; ISSN 1748-9326
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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