Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Delayed Pantropical Carbon Sink Recovery Due To Asynchronous Post-El Niño Photosynthesis and Respiration Trajectories

Wu, Mousong ; Scholze, Marko LU orcid ; Chen, Jing M. ; Kerr, Yann ; Vossbeck, Michael ; Rodriguez-Fernandez, Nemesio and Kaminski, Thomas (2025) In Geophysical Research Letters 52(19).
Abstract

Occurring in 2015/16, the strong El Niño has been shown to significantly influence the pantropical carbon fluxes with multiple lines of evidence. However, a comprehensive understanding on the regional and vegetation-specific net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in response to this El Niño event and its recovery trajectories remain unclear. We revisited the controlling factors in the recovery of pantropical NEP from the 2015/16 El Niño until 2020 using a data assimilation framework. We estimated the pantropical net carbon emissions of 0.91 Pg C/yr in 2015 and the mean fraction of recovered area was 0.77 ± 0.07 during 2016–2020. Specifically, we found that temperature and radiation played dominant roles in controlling the recovery of forests'... (More)

Occurring in 2015/16, the strong El Niño has been shown to significantly influence the pantropical carbon fluxes with multiple lines of evidence. However, a comprehensive understanding on the regional and vegetation-specific net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in response to this El Niño event and its recovery trajectories remain unclear. We revisited the controlling factors in the recovery of pantropical NEP from the 2015/16 El Niño until 2020 using a data assimilation framework. We estimated the pantropical net carbon emissions of 0.91 Pg C/yr in 2015 and the mean fraction of recovered area was 0.77 ± 0.07 during 2016–2020. Specifically, we found that temperature and radiation played dominant roles in controlling the recovery of forests' NEP via reducing photosynthesis. Furthermore, we revealed the compound climatic controls on enhanced ecosystem respiration offset NEP recovery over non-forests. These results suggest that the divergence in carbon fluxes regulates the pantropical ecosystem net carbon uptake recovery.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Geophysical Research Letters
volume
52
issue
19
article number
e2025GL116236
publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
external identifiers
  • scopus:105018583706
ISSN
0094-8276
DOI
10.1029/2025GL116236
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2025. The Author(s).
id
6f9fa896-6be1-4a6c-a6db-3136fbb7f103
date added to LUP
2025-10-21 11:57:58
date last changed
2025-10-21 14:18:51
@article{6f9fa896-6be1-4a6c-a6db-3136fbb7f103,
  abstract     = {{<p>Occurring in 2015/16, the strong El Niño has been shown to significantly influence the pantropical carbon fluxes with multiple lines of evidence. However, a comprehensive understanding on the regional and vegetation-specific net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in response to this El Niño event and its recovery trajectories remain unclear. We revisited the controlling factors in the recovery of pantropical NEP from the 2015/16 El Niño until 2020 using a data assimilation framework. We estimated the pantropical net carbon emissions of 0.91 Pg C/yr in 2015 and the mean fraction of recovered area was 0.77 ± 0.07 during 2016–2020. Specifically, we found that temperature and radiation played dominant roles in controlling the recovery of forests' NEP via reducing photosynthesis. Furthermore, we revealed the compound climatic controls on enhanced ecosystem respiration offset NEP recovery over non-forests. These results suggest that the divergence in carbon fluxes regulates the pantropical ecosystem net carbon uptake recovery.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wu, Mousong and Scholze, Marko and Chen, Jing M. and Kerr, Yann and Vossbeck, Michael and Rodriguez-Fernandez, Nemesio and Kaminski, Thomas}},
  issn         = {{0094-8276}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{19}},
  publisher    = {{American Geophysical Union (AGU)}},
  series       = {{Geophysical Research Letters}},
  title        = {{Delayed Pantropical Carbon Sink Recovery Due To Asynchronous Post-El Niño Photosynthesis and Respiration Trajectories}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2025GL116236}},
  doi          = {{10.1029/2025GL116236}},
  volume       = {{52}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}