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The importance of interacting climate modes on Australia’s contribution to global carbon cycle extremes

Cleverly, James ; Eamus, Derek ; Luo, Qunying ; Restrepo-Coupe, Natalia ; Kljun, Natascha LU orcid ; Ma, Xuanlong ; Ewenz, Cacilia ; Li, Longhui ; Yu, Qiang and Huete, Alfredo (2016) In Scientific Reports 6.
Abstract
The global carbon cycle is highly sensitive to climate-driven fluctuations of precipitation, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. This was clearly manifested by a 20% increase of the global terrestrial C sink in 2011 during the strongest sustained La Niña since 1917. However, inconsistencies exist between El Niño/La Niña (ENSO) cycles and precipitation in the historical record; for example, significant ENSO–precipitation correlations were present in only 31% of the last 100 years, and often absent in wet years. To resolve these inconsistencies, we used an advanced temporal scaling method for identifying interactions amongst three key climate modes (El Niño, the Indian Ocean dipole, and the southern annular mode). When these climate modes... (More)
The global carbon cycle is highly sensitive to climate-driven fluctuations of precipitation, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. This was clearly manifested by a 20% increase of the global terrestrial C sink in 2011 during the strongest sustained La Niña since 1917. However, inconsistencies exist between El Niño/La Niña (ENSO) cycles and precipitation in the historical record; for example, significant ENSO–precipitation correlations were present in only 31% of the last 100 years, and often absent in wet years. To resolve these inconsistencies, we used an advanced temporal scaling method for identifying interactions amongst three key climate modes (El Niño, the Indian Ocean dipole, and the southern annular mode). When these climate modes synchronised (1999–2012), drought and extreme precipitation were observed across Australia. The interaction amongst these climate modes, more than the effect of any single mode, was associated with large fluctuations in precipitation and productivity. The long-term exposure of vegetation to this arid environment has favoured a resilient flora capable of large fluctuations in photosynthetic productivity and explains why Australia was a major contributor not only to the 2011 global C sink anomaly but also to global reductions in photosynthetic C uptake during the previous decade of drought. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Scientific Reports
volume
6
article number
23113
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:84961142037
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/srep23113
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
a6c5d3ce-0bbe-4516-abc1-242b2c089eb2
date added to LUP
2018-04-16 15:34:15
date last changed
2022-04-25 06:48:08
@article{a6c5d3ce-0bbe-4516-abc1-242b2c089eb2,
  abstract     = {{The global carbon cycle is highly sensitive to climate-driven fluctuations of precipitation, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. This was clearly manifested by a 20% increase of the global terrestrial C sink in 2011 during the strongest sustained La Niña since 1917. However, inconsistencies exist between El Niño/La Niña (ENSO) cycles and precipitation in the historical record; for example, significant ENSO–precipitation correlations were present in only 31% of the last 100 years, and often absent in wet years. To resolve these inconsistencies, we used an advanced temporal scaling method for identifying interactions amongst three key climate modes (El Niño, the Indian Ocean dipole, and the southern annular mode). When these climate modes synchronised (1999–2012), drought and extreme precipitation were observed across Australia. The interaction amongst these climate modes, more than the effect of any single mode, was associated with large fluctuations in precipitation and productivity. The long-term exposure of vegetation to this arid environment has favoured a resilient flora capable of large fluctuations in photosynthetic productivity and explains why Australia was a major contributor not only to the 2011 global C sink anomaly but also to global reductions in photosynthetic C uptake during the previous decade of drought.}},
  author       = {{Cleverly, James and Eamus, Derek and Luo, Qunying and Restrepo-Coupe, Natalia and Kljun, Natascha and Ma, Xuanlong and Ewenz, Cacilia and Li, Longhui and Yu, Qiang and Huete, Alfredo}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{The importance of interacting climate modes on Australia’s contribution to global carbon cycle extremes}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep23113}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/srep23113}},
  volume       = {{6}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}