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Title: Non-uniform seasonal warming regulates vegetation greening and atmospheric CO2 amplification over northern lands

Journal Article · · Environmental Research Letters
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [5];  [1];  [9];  [10];  [6];  [11];  [1];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15] more »;  [16];  [17];  [11] « less
  1. East China Normal Univ. (ECNU), Shanghai (China); Inst. of Eco-Chongming (IEC), Shanghai (China)
  2. Lund Univ. (Sweden); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  3. Beijing Normal Univ. (China); Alfred Wegener Inst. for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam (Germany)
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Univ. of Maine, Orono, ME (United States)
  6. Beijing Normal Univ. (China)
  7. China Agricultural Univ., Beijing (China)
  8. Univ. Grenoble Alpes (France)
  9. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  10. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  11. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  12. Lab. des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
  13. Lab. des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Univ. Grenoble Alpes (France); Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), Grenoble (France)
  14. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Aspendale, VIC (Australia)
  15. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)
  16. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
  17. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The enhanced vegetation growth by climate warming plays a pivotal role in amplifying the seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO2 at northern lands (>50° N) since 1960s. However, the correlation between vegetation growth, temperature and seasonal amplitude of atmospheric CO2 concentration have become elusive with the slowed increasing trend of vegetation growth and weakened temperature control on CO2 uptake since late 1990s. Here, based on in situ atmospheric CO2 concentration records from the Barrow observatory site, we found a slowdown in the increasing trend of the atmospheric CO2 amplitude from 1990s to mid-2000s. This phenomenon was associated with the paused decrease in the minimum CO2 concentration ([CO2]min), which was significantly correlated with the slowdown of vegetation greening and growing-season length extension. We then showed that both the vegetation greenness and growing-season length were positively correlated with spring but not autumn temperature over the northern lands. Furthermore, such asymmetric dependences of vegetation growth upon spring and autumn temperature cannot be captured by the state-of-art terrestrial biosphere models. These findings indicate that the responses of vegetation growth to spring and autumn warming are asymmetric, and highlight the need of improving autumn phenology in the models for predicting seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO2 concentration.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1495053
Journal Information:
Environmental Research Letters, Journal Name: Environmental Research Letters Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 13; ISSN 1748-9326
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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