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

Abstract

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.

Authors:
 [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)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1495053
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1501679
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Environmental Research Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 13; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1748-9326
Publisher:
IOP Publishing
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Li, Zhao, Xia, Jianyang, Ahlström, Anders, Rinke, Annette, Koven, Charles, Hayes, Daniel J., Ji, Duoying, Zhang, Geli, Krinner, Gerhard, Chen, Guangsheng, Cheng, Wanying, Dong, Jinwei, Liang, Junyi, Moore, John C., Jiang, Lifen, Yan, Liming, Ciais, Philippe, Peng, Shushi, Wang, Ying-Ping, Xiao, Xiangming, Shi, Zheng, McGuire, A. David, and Luo, Yiqi. Non-uniform seasonal warming regulates vegetation greening and atmospheric CO2 amplification over northern lands. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aae9ad.
Li, Zhao, Xia, Jianyang, Ahlström, Anders, Rinke, Annette, Koven, Charles, Hayes, Daniel J., Ji, Duoying, Zhang, Geli, Krinner, Gerhard, Chen, Guangsheng, Cheng, Wanying, Dong, Jinwei, Liang, Junyi, Moore, John C., Jiang, Lifen, Yan, Liming, Ciais, Philippe, Peng, Shushi, Wang, Ying-Ping, Xiao, Xiangming, Shi, Zheng, McGuire, A. David, & Luo, Yiqi. Non-uniform seasonal warming regulates vegetation greening and atmospheric CO2 amplification over northern lands. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae9ad
Li, Zhao, Xia, Jianyang, Ahlström, Anders, Rinke, Annette, Koven, Charles, Hayes, Daniel J., Ji, Duoying, Zhang, Geli, Krinner, Gerhard, Chen, Guangsheng, Cheng, Wanying, Dong, Jinwei, Liang, Junyi, Moore, John C., Jiang, Lifen, Yan, Liming, Ciais, Philippe, Peng, Shushi, Wang, Ying-Ping, Xiao, Xiangming, Shi, Zheng, McGuire, A. David, and Luo, Yiqi. 2018. "Non-uniform seasonal warming regulates vegetation greening and atmospheric CO2 amplification over northern lands". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae9ad. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1495053.
@article{osti_1495053,
title = {Non-uniform seasonal warming regulates vegetation greening and atmospheric CO2 amplification over northern lands},
author = {Li, Zhao and Xia, Jianyang and Ahlström, Anders and Rinke, Annette and Koven, Charles and Hayes, Daniel J. and Ji, Duoying and Zhang, Geli and Krinner, Gerhard and Chen, Guangsheng and Cheng, Wanying and Dong, Jinwei and Liang, Junyi and Moore, John C. and Jiang, Lifen and Yan, Liming and Ciais, Philippe and Peng, Shushi and Wang, Ying-Ping and Xiao, Xiangming and Shi, Zheng and McGuire, A. David and Luo, Yiqi},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aae9ad},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1495053}, journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
issn = {1748-9326},
number = 12,
volume = 13,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Nov 27 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Tue Nov 27 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

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Cited by: 11 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Changes in temporal trends of CO2 amplitude and plant growth (NDVI). The ten-year moving window from 1982 to 2010 shows the changing trends of (a), the peak-to-trough amplitude ([CO2]amplitude) and yearly maximum CO2 concentration ([CO2]max) as well as the minimum CO2 concentration ([CO2]min) at Point Barrow (BRW); (b)more » NDVI and growing season length (GSL). The insert in panel (a) shows the long-term trends of [CO2]amplitude (red column, 0.075 ppm yr−1, $$P$$ < 0.01), [CO2]min (green column, −0.058 ppm yr−1, $$P$$<0.01) and [CO2]max (blue column, 0.016 ppm yr-1, $$P$$ = 0.17) across 1982 to 2010. The insert in panel (b) shows the correlation between the yearly anomalies of the [CO2]min and NDVI during 1982–2010 (with $$r$$ = −0.47, P < 0.05).« less

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Works referencing / citing this record:

High ecosystem stability of evergreen broadleaf forests under severe droughts
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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.