Global response of terrestrial gross primary productivity to climate extremes

Minshu Yuan; Qiuan Zhu; Jiang Zhang; Jinxun Liu; Huai Chen; Changhui Peng; Peng Li; Mingxu Li; Meng Wang; Pengxiang Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142337

Global response of terrestrial gross primary productivity to climate extremes

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jan 1:750:142337. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142337. Epub 2020 Sep 10.

Authors

Minshu Yuan¹, Qiuan Zhu², Jiang Zhang¹, Jinxun Liu³, Huai Chen⁴, Changhui Peng⁵, Peng Li⁶, Mingxu Li⁷, Meng Wang⁸, Pengxiang Zhao⁹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Ecological Forecasting and Global Change, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
² Center for Ecological Forecasting and Global Change, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China; College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China; National Earth System Science Data Center, National Science & Technology Infrastructure of China, Beijing, 100101, China. Electronic address: qiuan.zhu@gmail.com.
³ U.S. Geological Survey, Western Geographic Science Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.
⁴ Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.
⁵ Institute of Environment Sciences, Department of Biology Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal, Case Postale 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada.
⁶ College of Resources and Environmental Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁸ State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Vegetation Restoration, Institute for Peat and Mire Research, Northeast Normal University, 130024, China.
⁹ College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.

PMID: 33182195
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142337

Abstract

Extreme climate events undoubtedly have essential impacts on ecosystem gross primary productivity (GPP), but the global spatio-temporal patterns of GPP responses to climate extremes are unclear. In this study, we analyzed the responses of GPP to temperature and precipitation extremes during historical (1901-2016) and future (2006-2100) periods using climate extreme indices (CEIs) developed by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices. Eight temperature-related CEIs and eight precipitation-related CEIs were used for this analysis, along with three future greenhouse gas concentration trajectory scenarios generated by the IPCC: RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5. Our results show that under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, most climate extremes are increasing from the historical period into the future, indicating a warming globe with more frequent and more intense extreme climate events. But the increasing rate is only persistently enhanced with time under scenario RCP 8.5. GPP shows a continuous negative relationship with cold CEIs and positive relationship with wet CEIs from the historical period into the future. In all zonal scales, the changed magnitude of GPP responds strongly to extreme value-related temperature extremes under different scenarios. However, the precipitation-related extremes with the strongest GPP response are various in different regions. In the future, GPP is most sensitive to temperature extremes in upper northern latitudes and in high-altitude regions (e.g., Qinghai-Tibet Plateau) and to precipitation extremes in the tropical zone. This study may provide a basis for predicting how GPP responds to climate extremes and explaining the underlying changes in the carbon cycle.

Keywords: Carbon cycle; Climate extremes; Gross primary productivity; Precipitation-related indices; Temperature-related indices.