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Effect of climate dataset selection on simulations of terrestrial GPP: Highest uncertainty for tropical regions

Wu, Zhendong LU ; Boke Olén, Niklas LU ; Fensholt, Rasmus ; Ardö, Jonas LU orcid ; Eklundh, Lars LU orcid and Lehsten, Veiko LU (2018) In PLoS ONE 13(6).
Abstract
Biogeochemical models use meteorological forcing data derived with different approaches(e.g. based on interpolation or reanalysis of observation data or a hybrid hereof) to simulateecosystem processes such as gross primary productivity (GPP). This study assesses theimpact of different widely used climate datasets on simulated gross primary productivity andevaluates the suitability of them for reproducing the global and regional carbon cycle asmapped from independent GPP data. We simulate GPP with the biogeochemical modelLPJ-GUESS using six historical climate datasets (CRU, CRUNCEP, ECMWF, NCEP,PRINCETON, and WFDEI). The simulated GPP is evaluated using an observation-basedGPP product derived from eddy covariance measurements in combination... (More)
Biogeochemical models use meteorological forcing data derived with different approaches(e.g. based on interpolation or reanalysis of observation data or a hybrid hereof) to simulateecosystem processes such as gross primary productivity (GPP). This study assesses theimpact of different widely used climate datasets on simulated gross primary productivity andevaluates the suitability of them for reproducing the global and regional carbon cycle asmapped from independent GPP data. We simulate GPP with the biogeochemical modelLPJ-GUESS using six historical climate datasets (CRU, CRUNCEP, ECMWF, NCEP,PRINCETON, and WFDEI). The simulated GPP is evaluated using an observation-basedGPP product derived from eddy covariance measurements in combination with remotelysensed data. Our results show that all datasets tested produce relatively similar GPP simulationsat a global scale, corresponding fairly well to the observation-based data with a differencebetween simulations and observations ranging from -50 to 60 g m-2 yr-1. However, allsimulations also show a strong underestimation of GPP (ranging from -533 to -870 g m-2 yr-1)and low temporal agreement (r < 0.4) with observations over tropical areas. As the shortwaveradiation for tropical areas was found to have the highest uncertainty in the analyzed historicalclimate datasets, we test whether simulation results could be improved by a correction ofthe tested shortwave radiation for tropical areas using a new radiation product from the InternationalSatellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). A large improvement (up to 48%) insimulated GPP magnitude was observed with bias corrected shortwave radiation, as well asan increase in spatio-temporal agreement between the simulated GPP and observationbasedGPP. This study conducts a spatial inter-comparison and quantification of the performancesof climate datasets and can thereby facilitate the selection of climate forcing dataover any given study area for modelling purposes. (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
keywords
Climate datasets selection, Global carbon cycle, Ecosystem modelling, GPP, LPJ-GUESS, Eddy covariance flux, ISCCP
in
PLoS ONE
volume
13
issue
6
article number
e0199383
pages
15 pages
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • scopus:85048865398
  • pmid:29928023
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0199383
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
aafa7c1b-b2a9-475a-8899-5445f3ec8d58
date added to LUP
2018-06-25 10:09:52
date last changed
2022-03-17 08:13:54
@article{aafa7c1b-b2a9-475a-8899-5445f3ec8d58,
  abstract     = {{Biogeochemical models use meteorological forcing data derived with different approaches(e.g. based on interpolation or reanalysis of observation data or a hybrid hereof) to simulateecosystem processes such as gross primary productivity (GPP). This study assesses theimpact of different widely used climate datasets on simulated gross primary productivity andevaluates the suitability of them for reproducing the global and regional carbon cycle asmapped from independent GPP data. We simulate GPP with the biogeochemical modelLPJ-GUESS using six historical climate datasets (CRU, CRUNCEP, ECMWF, NCEP,PRINCETON, and WFDEI). The simulated GPP is evaluated using an observation-basedGPP product derived from eddy covariance measurements in combination with remotelysensed data. Our results show that all datasets tested produce relatively similar GPP simulationsat a global scale, corresponding fairly well to the observation-based data with a differencebetween simulations and observations ranging from -50 to 60 g m-2 yr-1. However, allsimulations also show a strong underestimation of GPP (ranging from -533 to -870 g m-2 yr-1)and low temporal agreement (r &lt; 0.4) with observations over tropical areas. As the shortwaveradiation for tropical areas was found to have the highest uncertainty in the analyzed historicalclimate datasets, we test whether simulation results could be improved by a correction ofthe tested shortwave radiation for tropical areas using a new radiation product from the InternationalSatellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). A large improvement (up to 48%) insimulated GPP magnitude was observed with bias corrected shortwave radiation, as well asan increase in spatio-temporal agreement between the simulated GPP and observationbasedGPP. This study conducts a spatial inter-comparison and quantification of the performancesof climate datasets and can thereby facilitate the selection of climate forcing dataover any given study area for modelling purposes.}},
  author       = {{Wu, Zhendong and Boke Olén, Niklas and Fensholt, Rasmus and Ardö, Jonas and Eklundh, Lars and Lehsten, Veiko}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  keywords     = {{Climate datasets selection; Global carbon cycle; Ecosystem modelling; GPP; LPJ-GUESS; Eddy covariance flux; ISCCP}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{6}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{Effect of climate dataset selection on simulations of terrestrial GPP: Highest uncertainty for tropical regions}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199383}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0199383}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}