Simulated sensitivity of African terrestrial ecosystem photosynthesis to rainfall frequency, intensity, and rainy season length
(2018) In Environmental Research Letters 13(2).- Abstract
There is growing evidence of ongoing changes in the statistics of intra-seasonal rainfall variability over large parts of the world. Changes in annual total rainfall may arise from shifts, either singly or in a combination, of distinctive intra-seasonal characteristics -i.e. rainfall frequency, rainfall intensity, and rainfall seasonality. Understanding how various ecosystems respond to the changes in intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics is critical for predictions of future biome shifts and ecosystem services under climate change, especially for arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Here, we use an advanced dynamic vegetation model (SEIB-DGVM) coupled with a stochastic rainfall/weather simulator to answer the following question: how does... (More)
There is growing evidence of ongoing changes in the statistics of intra-seasonal rainfall variability over large parts of the world. Changes in annual total rainfall may arise from shifts, either singly or in a combination, of distinctive intra-seasonal characteristics -i.e. rainfall frequency, rainfall intensity, and rainfall seasonality. Understanding how various ecosystems respond to the changes in intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics is critical for predictions of future biome shifts and ecosystem services under climate change, especially for arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Here, we use an advanced dynamic vegetation model (SEIB-DGVM) coupled with a stochastic rainfall/weather simulator to answer the following question: how does the productivity of ecosystems respond to a given percentage change in the total seasonal rainfall that is realized by varying only one of the three rainfall characteristics (rainfall frequency, intensity, and rainy season length)? We conducted ensemble simulations for continental Africa for a realistic range of changes (-20% ∼ +20%) in total rainfall amount. We find that the simulated ecosystem productivity (measured by gross primary production, GPP) shows distinctive responses to the intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics. Specifically, increase in rainfall frequency can lead to 28% more GPP increase than the same percentage increase in rainfall intensity; in tropical woodlands, GPP sensitivity to changes in rainy season length is ∼4 times larger than to the same percentage changes in rainfall frequency or intensity. In contrast, shifts in the simulated biome distribution are much less sensitive to intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics than they are to total rainfall amount. Our results reveal three major distinctive productivity responses to seasonal rainfall variability - 'chronic water stress', 'acute water stress' and 'minimum water stress' - which are respectively associated with three broad spatial patterns of African ecosystem physiognomy, i.e. savannas, woodlands, and tropical forests.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018-02-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Africa, dynamic vegetation modeling, rainfall frequency, rainfall intensity, rainy season length, water stress
- in
- Environmental Research Letters
- volume
- 13
- issue
- 2
- article number
- 025013
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85048214195
- ISSN
- 1748-9326
- DOI
- 10.1088/1748-9326/aa9f30
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 82a487a7-2783-4785-a201-a9e7c4fc3249
- date added to LUP
- 2018-06-21 16:05:39
- date last changed
- 2022-03-17 08:13:54
@article{82a487a7-2783-4785-a201-a9e7c4fc3249, abstract = {{<p>There is growing evidence of ongoing changes in the statistics of intra-seasonal rainfall variability over large parts of the world. Changes in annual total rainfall may arise from shifts, either singly or in a combination, of distinctive intra-seasonal characteristics -i.e. rainfall frequency, rainfall intensity, and rainfall seasonality. Understanding how various ecosystems respond to the changes in intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics is critical for predictions of future biome shifts and ecosystem services under climate change, especially for arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Here, we use an advanced dynamic vegetation model (SEIB-DGVM) coupled with a stochastic rainfall/weather simulator to answer the following question: how does the productivity of ecosystems respond to a given percentage change in the total seasonal rainfall that is realized by varying only one of the three rainfall characteristics (rainfall frequency, intensity, and rainy season length)? We conducted ensemble simulations for continental Africa for a realistic range of changes (-20% ∼ +20%) in total rainfall amount. We find that the simulated ecosystem productivity (measured by gross primary production, GPP) shows distinctive responses to the intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics. Specifically, increase in rainfall frequency can lead to 28% more GPP increase than the same percentage increase in rainfall intensity; in tropical woodlands, GPP sensitivity to changes in rainy season length is ∼4 times larger than to the same percentage changes in rainfall frequency or intensity. In contrast, shifts in the simulated biome distribution are much less sensitive to intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics than they are to total rainfall amount. Our results reveal three major distinctive productivity responses to seasonal rainfall variability - 'chronic water stress', 'acute water stress' and 'minimum water stress' - which are respectively associated with three broad spatial patterns of African ecosystem physiognomy, i.e. savannas, woodlands, and tropical forests.</p>}}, author = {{Guan, Kaiyu and Good, Stephen P. and Caylor, Kelly K. and Medvigy, David and Pan, Ming and Wood, Eric F. and Sato, Hisashi and Biasutti, Michela and Chen, Min and Ahlström, Anders and Xu, Xiangtao}}, issn = {{1748-9326}}, keywords = {{Africa; dynamic vegetation modeling; rainfall frequency; rainfall intensity; rainy season length; water stress}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{02}}, number = {{2}}, publisher = {{IOP Publishing}}, series = {{Environmental Research Letters}}, title = {{Simulated sensitivity of African terrestrial ecosystem photosynthesis to rainfall frequency, intensity, and rainy season length}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9f30}}, doi = {{10.1088/1748-9326/aa9f30}}, volume = {{13}}, year = {{2018}}, }