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Title: Severe summer heatwave and drought strongly reduced carbon uptake in Southern China

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep18813· OSTI ID:1239118
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [6]
  1. Beijing Normal Univ., Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Gansu (China)
  2. Beijing Normal Univ., Beijing (China)
  3. Central South Univ. of Forestry and Technology, Hunan (China)
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  5. Nanjing Univ. (China)
  6. Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry Univ., Lin'an (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Increasing heatwave and drought events can potentially alter the carbon cycle. Few studies have investigated the impacts of hundred-year return heatwaves and droughts, as those events are rare. In the summer of 2013, southern China experienced its strongest drought and heatwave on record for the past 113 years. We show that the record-breaking heatwave and drought lasted two months (from July to August), significantly reduced the satellite-based vegetation index and gross primary production, substantially altered the regional carbon cycle, and produced the largest negative crop yield anomaly since 1960. The event resulted in a net reduction of 101.54 Tg C in carbon sequestration in the region during these two months, which was 39–53% of the annual net carbon sink of China’s terrestrial ecosystems (190–260 Tg C yr-1). Moreover, model experiments showed that heatwaves and droughts consistently decreased ecosystem vegetation primary production but had opposite impacts on ecosystem respiration (TER), with increased TER by 6.78 ± 2.15% and decreased TER by 15.34 ± 3.57% assuming only changed temperature and precipitation, respectively. As a result, in light of increasing frequency and severity of future heatwaves and droughts, our study highlights the importance of accounting for the impacts of heatwaves and droughts in assessing the carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems.

Research Organization:
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-04ER63917
OSTI ID:
1239118
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Vol. 6; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 130 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (17)

Trees tolerate an extreme heatwave via sustained transpirational cooling and increased leaf thermal tolerance journal February 2018
Canola Responses to Drought, Heat, and Combined Stress: Shared and Specific Effects on Carbon Assimilation, Seed Yield, and Oil Composition journal August 2018
Climate Extremes and Their Impacts on Interannual Vegetation Variabilities: A Case Study in Hubei Province of Central China journal March 2018
Climate change and abiotic stress mechanisms in plants journal April 2019
Spatial and Temporal Variations of Compound Droughts and Hot Extremes in China journal February 2019
The strengthened relationship between the Yangtze River Valley summer rainfall and the Southern Hemisphere annular mode in recent decades journal January 2020
Detection of Spatiotemporal Extreme Changes in Atmospheric CO2 Concentration Based on Satellite Observations journal May 2018
Carbon uptake and water use in woodlands and forests in southern Australia during an extreme heat wave event in the “Angry Summer” of 2012/2013 journal January 2016
Compound Extremes in Hydroclimatology: A Review journal June 2018
Different ways to die in a changing world: Consequences of climate change for tree species performance and survival through an ecophysiological perspective
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journal October 2019
Detection of Drought-Induced Hickory Disturbances in Western Lin An County, China, Using Multitemporal Landsat Imagery journal April 2016
Joint forcing by heat waves and mowing poses a threat to grassland ecosystems: Evidence from a manipulative experiment journal April 2020
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An extreme heatwave enhanced the xanthophyll de-epoxidation state in leaves of Eucalyptus trees grown in the field journal January 2020
Carbon uptake and water use in woodlands and forests in southern Australia during an extreme heat wave event in the "Angry Summer" of 2012/2013 text January 2016

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