Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Simulated sensitivity of African terrestrial ecosystem photosynthesis to rainfall frequency, intensity, and rainy season length

Guan, Kaiyu ; Good, Stephen P. ; Caylor, Kelly K. ; Medvigy, David ; Pan, Ming ; Wood, Eric F. ; Sato, Hisashi ; Biasutti, Michela ; Chen, Min and Ahlström, Anders LU orcid , et al. (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)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
organization
publishing date
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}},
}