Impact of large-scale climate extremes on biospheric carbon fluxes: An intercomparison based on MsTMIP data.

Zscheischler, Jakob and Michalak, Anna M. and Schwalm, Christopher and Mahecha, Miguel D. and Huntzinger, Deborah N. and Reichstein, Markus and Berthier, Gwenaëlle and Ciais, Philippe and Cook, Robert B. and El-Masri, Bassil and Huang, Maoyi and Ito, Akihiko and Jain, Atul and King, Anthony and Lei, Huimin and Lu, Chaoqun and Mao, Jiafu and Peng, Shushi and Poulter, Benjamin and Ricciuto, Daniel and Shi, Xiaoying and Tao, Bo and Tian, Hanqin and Viovy, Nicolas and Wang, Weile and Wei, Yaxing and Yang, Jia and Zeng, Ning (2014) Impact of large-scale climate extremes on biospheric carbon fluxes: An intercomparison based on MsTMIP data. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 28 (6). pp. 585-600. ISSN 1944-9224

Preview

Text Zscheischler_J_etal_2014_Impact_large-scale_climate_extremes_biospheric_carbon.pdf Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Understanding the role of climate extremes and their impact on the carbon (C) cycle is increasingly a focus of Earth system science. Climate extremes such as droughts, heat waves, or heavy precipitation events can cause substantial changes in terrestrial C fluxes. On the other hand, extreme changes in C fluxes are often, but not always, driven by extreme climate conditions. Here we present an analysis of how extremes in temperature and precipitation, and extreme changes in terrestrial C fluxes are related to each other in 10 state-of-the-art terrestrial carbon models, all driven by the same climate forcing. We use model outputs from the North American Carbon Program Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project (MsTMIP). A global-scale analysis shows that both droughts and heat waves translate into anomalous net releases of CO2 from the land surface via different mechanisms: Droughts largely decrease gross primary production (GPP) and to a lower extent total respiration (TR), while heat waves slightly decrease GPP but increase TR. Cold and wet periods have a smaller opposite effect. Analyzing extremes in C fluxes reveals that extreme changes in GPP and TR are often caused by strong shifts in water availability, but for extremes in TR shifts in temperature are also important. Extremes in net CO2 exchange are equally strongly driven by deviations in temperature and precipitation. Models mostly agree on the sign of the C flux response to climate extremes, but model spread is large. In tropical forests, C cycle extremes are driven by water availability, whereas in boreal forests temperature plays a more important role. Models are particularly uncertain about the C flux response to extreme heat in boreal forests.

Item Type:	Article
Publisher’s Statement:	©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
ID number or DOI:	10.1002/2014GB004826
Keywords:	0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling; 0428 Carbon cycling; 0466 Modeling; 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions; climate extremes; cycle; Drought; extreme events; future climate; model; model intercomparison; MsTMIP; net primary production; rain-forests; respiration; spatiotemporal; Temperature; terrestrial biosphere; tropical forests
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics Q Science > QH Natural history
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Faculty/Staff
Department/Unit:	College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Science > School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability
Date Deposited:	08 Oct 2015 20:19
URI:	http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/714

Actions (login required)

IR Staff Record View

Downloads