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Title: Changes in the Shadow: The Shifting Role of Shaded Leaves in Global Carbon and Water Cycles Under Climate Change

Abstract

Globally shaded leaves contribute to more than a half of the total increase in gross primary production (GPP; 7.6 Pg C) for 1982–2016. During 1982–2016, the fraction of shaded GPP increases by 1.1% (p < 0.01) in tropical forests and decreases by 1.4% (p < 0.01) and 1.8% (p < 0.01) in evergreen needleleaf and deciduous needleleaf boreal forests, respectively, suggesting an ecological niche of certain canopy structure for ecosystems to achieve maximum GPP. Unlike transpiration from sunlit leaves that has a turning point in the trend in 2003, global transpiration from shaded leaves steadily increased at the rate of 34 km3/year (p < 0.0001) during 1982–2016. Our study therefore suggests that shaded leaves have an increasing role in buffering the adverse impact of climate change and extremes. Further studies are still needed to reduce the uncertainties in reported trends arisen from climate forcing data, leaf area index, and land cover and land change products.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Toronto, ON (Canada)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1477298
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Geophysical Research Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 45; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

He, Liming, Chen, Jing M., Gonsamo, Alemu, Luo, Xiangzhong, Wang, Rong, Liu, Yang, and Liu, Ronggao. Changes in the Shadow: The Shifting Role of Shaded Leaves in Global Carbon and Water Cycles Under Climate Change. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1029/2018GL077560.
He, Liming, Chen, Jing M., Gonsamo, Alemu, Luo, Xiangzhong, Wang, Rong, Liu, Yang, & Liu, Ronggao. Changes in the Shadow: The Shifting Role of Shaded Leaves in Global Carbon and Water Cycles Under Climate Change. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077560
He, Liming, Chen, Jing M., Gonsamo, Alemu, Luo, Xiangzhong, Wang, Rong, Liu, Yang, and Liu, Ronggao. Tue . "Changes in the Shadow: The Shifting Role of Shaded Leaves in Global Carbon and Water Cycles Under Climate Change". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077560. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1477298.
@article{osti_1477298,
title = {Changes in the Shadow: The Shifting Role of Shaded Leaves in Global Carbon and Water Cycles Under Climate Change},
author = {He, Liming and Chen, Jing M. and Gonsamo, Alemu and Luo, Xiangzhong and Wang, Rong and Liu, Yang and Liu, Ronggao},
abstractNote = {Globally shaded leaves contribute to more than a half of the total increase in gross primary production (GPP; 7.6 Pg C) for 1982–2016. During 1982–2016, the fraction of shaded GPP increases by 1.1% (p < 0.01) in tropical forests and decreases by 1.4% (p < 0.01) and 1.8% (p < 0.01) in evergreen needleleaf and deciduous needleleaf boreal forests, respectively, suggesting an ecological niche of certain canopy structure for ecosystems to achieve maximum GPP. Unlike transpiration from sunlit leaves that has a turning point in the trend in 2003, global transpiration from shaded leaves steadily increased at the rate of 34 km3/year (p < 0.0001) during 1982–2016. Our study therefore suggests that shaded leaves have an increasing role in buffering the adverse impact of climate change and extremes. Further studies are still needed to reduce the uncertainties in reported trends arisen from climate forcing data, leaf area index, and land cover and land change products.},
doi = {10.1029/2018GL077560},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 10,
volume = 45,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Cited by: 53 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Time series of global gross primary production (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) components and the percentages of shaded GPP for different plant function types (ENF: evergreen needle leaf forest; EBF: evergreen broadleaf forest; DNF: deciduous needle leaf forest; DBF: deciduous broadleaf forest). (a) Global total GPP, GPP estimates frommore » the sunlit and shaded groups, respectively. (b and c) Global total ET, evaporation (E), and transpiration (T). (d) Transpirations from the sunlit and shaded leaf groups. (e, f and g) Percentages of shaded GPP for different PFTs. “Sen” indicates Sen’s slope in Mann-Kendall test. The simulation is conducted using GLOBMAP LAI product.« less

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