Terrestrial Gross Carbon Dioxide Uptake: Global Distribution and Covariation with Climate
Carbon Cycle and Climate Change
As climate change accelerates, it is important to know the likely impact of climate change on the carbon cycle (see the Perspective by Reich). Gross primary production (GPP) is a measure of the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere every year to fuel photosynthesis. Beer et al. (p. 834, published online 5 July) used a combination of observation and calculation to estimate that the total GPP by terrestrial plants is around 122 billion tons per year; in comparison, burning fossil fuels emits about 7 billion tons annually. Thirty-two percent of this uptake occurs in tropical forests, and precipitation controls carbon uptake in more than 40% of vegetated land. The temperature sensitivity (Q10) of ecosystem respiratory processes is a key determinant of the interaction between climate and the carbon cycle. Mahecha et al. (p. 838, published online 5 July) now show that the Q10 of ecosystem respiration is invariant with respect to mean annual temperature, independent of the analyzed ecosystem type, with a global mean value for Q10 of 1.6. This level of temperature sensitivity suggests a less-pronounced climate sensitivity of the carbon cycle than assumed by recent climate models.
Abstract
Terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) is the largest global CO2 flux driving several ecosystem functions. We provide an observation-based estimate of this flux at 123 ± 8 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year−1) using eddy covariance flux data and various diagnostic models. Tropical forests and savannahs account for 60%. GPP over 40% of the vegetated land is associated with precipitation. State-of-the-art process-oriented biosphere models used for climate predictions exhibit a large between-model variation of GPP’s latitudinal patterns and show higher spatial correlations between GPP and precipitation, suggesting the existence of missing processes or feedback mechanisms which attenuate the vegetation response to climate. Our estimates of spatially distributed GPP and its covariation with climate can help improve coupled climate–carbon cycle process models.
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Science
Volume 329 | Issue 5993
13 August 2010
13 August 2010
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Copyright © 2010, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Submission history
Received: 20 November 2009
Accepted: 8 June 2010
Published in print: 13 August 2010
Acknowledgments
This work used eddy covariance data acquired by the FLUXNET community and in particular by the following networks: AmeriFlux [U.S. Department of Energy, Biological and Environmental Research, Terrestrial Carbon Program (DE-FG02-04ER63917 and DE-FG02-04ER63911)], AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada (supported by CFCAS, NSERC, BIOCAP, Environment Canada, and NRCan), GreenGrass, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux, TCOS-Siberia, and USCCC. We acknowledge the support to the eddy covariance data harmonization provided by CarboEuropeIP, FAO-GTOS-TCO, Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, National Science Foundation, University of Tuscia, Université Laval and Environment Canada and U.S. Department of Energy and the database development and technical support from Berkeley Water Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Microsoft Research eScience, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of California–Berkeley, and University of Virginia. Remotely sensed land cover, fAPAR, and LAI were available through the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the projects GLC2000 and CYCLOPES. Climate data came from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, and the GEWEX project GPCP. We thank Mahendra K. Karki at GMAO/NASA for extracting the MOD17 required surface meteorological variables from the GMAO reanalysis dataset and Maosheng Zhao at NTSG of University of Montana for calculating the respective daytime VPD. We further acknowledge support by the European Commission FP7 projects COMBINE and CARBO-Extreme and a grant from the Max-Planck Society establishing the MPRG Biogeochemical Model-Data Integration. C.B., D.P., M.R., P.C., D.B., and S.L. conceived the study. C.B., C.R., D.P., E.T., M.J., M.R., and N.C. contributed diagnostic modeling results. C.B., A.B., G.B.B., M.L., F.I.W., and N.V. contributed process model results. C.B., E.T., and M.R. performed the analysis. C.B. and M.R. wrote the manuscript. All other coauthors contributed with data or substantial input to the manuscript.
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