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

Li, Zhao LU ; Xia, Jianyang ; Ahlström, Anders LU orcid ; Rinke, Annette ; Koven, Charles ; Hayes, Daniel J. ; Ji, Duoying ; Zhang, Geli ; Krinner, Gerhard and Chen, Guangsheng , et al. (2018) In Environmental Research Letters 13(12).
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... (More)

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.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
asymmetric response, atmosphericCO amplitude, non-uniform seasonal warming, slowed down
in
Environmental Research Letters
volume
13
issue
12
article number
124008
publisher
IOP Publishing
external identifiers
  • scopus:85060141509
ISSN
1748-9326
DOI
10.1088/1748-9326/aae9ad
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a1d7cc82-2b3d-4b19-ac1e-ecdfa78bef14
date added to LUP
2019-02-05 10:37:53
date last changed
2022-04-25 21:15:51
@article{a1d7cc82-2b3d-4b19-ac1e-ecdfa78bef14,
  abstract     = {{<p>The enhanced vegetation growth by climate warming plays a pivotal role in amplifying the seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> at northern lands (&gt;50° N) since 1960s. However, the correlation between vegetation growth, temperature and seasonal amplitude of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentration have become elusive with the slowed increasing trend of vegetation growth and weakened temperature control on CO<sub>2</sub> uptake since late 1990s. Here, based on in situ atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentration records from the Barrow observatory site, we found a slowdown in the increasing trend of the atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> amplitude from 1990s to mid-2000s. This phenomenon was associated with the paused decrease in the minimum CO<sub>2</sub> concentration ([CO<sub>2</sub>]<sub>min</sub>), 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 CO<sub>2</sub> concentration.</p>}},
  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}},
  issn         = {{1748-9326}},
  keywords     = {{asymmetric response; atmosphericCO amplitude; non-uniform seasonal warming; slowed down}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
  title        = {{Non-uniform seasonal warming regulates vegetation greening and atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> amplification over northern lands}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae9ad}},
  doi          = {{10.1088/1748-9326/aae9ad}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}