Global positive gross primary productivity extremes and climate contributions during 1982-2016

Miaomiao Wang; Shaoqiang Wang; Jian Zhao; Weimin Ju; Zhuo Hao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145703

Global positive gross primary productivity extremes and climate contributions during 1982-2016

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jun 20:774:145703. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145703. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

Authors

Miaomiao Wang¹, Shaoqiang Wang², Jian Zhao³, Weimin Ju⁴, Zhuo Hao⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Digital Agriculture, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350003, China; Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: sqwang@igsnrr.ac.cn.
³ Institute of Digital Agriculture, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350003, China. Electronic address: zhaojian@faas.cn.
⁴ Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁵ Agricultural Clean Watershed Research Group, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.

PMID: 33610992
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145703

Abstract

Gross primary production (GPP) quantifies the photosynthetic uptake of carbon by the terrestrial ecosystem. Positive GPP extremes represent the potential capacity of the terrestrial ecosystem to uptake carbon dioxide. Studying the positive GPP extreme is vital for the global carbon cycle and mitigation of global warming. With increasing climate extreme events, many kinds of research focus on studying negative GPP and the negative impact of climatic extremes on GPP. There is still a lack of research on positive GPP extremes and whether climatic extremes could be beneficial to global carbon uptake. In this study, we used daily Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator (BEPS) to simulate GPP of the global terrestrial ecosystem during 1982-2016 and combined TRENDY models to detect positive GPP extremes and investigate the effects of climate extremes on GPP. We found the results of the TRENDY models have large differences in some areas of the globe, and the BEPS model driven by remote sensing data could be more suitable for simulating the long-term time series of global terrestrial GPP. Compared to other plant functional types, grasslands contributed the most to positive GPP extremes, accounting for approximately 41.6% (TRENDY) and 34.8% (BEPS) of the global positive GPP extremes. The probabilities of positive GPP extremes caused by positive precipitation extremes were significantly higher than those caused by temperature and radiation in most areas of the globe, indicating that sufficient precipitation (not a flood) would boost the carbon uptake ability of the global terrestrial ecosystem to form positive GPP extremes. On the contrary, the partial correlation coefficients between temperature and GPP were negative in most areas of globe, suggesting that global warming will not be conducive to carbon uptake of the terrestrial ecosystem. This study may provide new knowledge on the global positive GPP extremes.

Keywords: Climate extremes; Positive GPP extremes; Terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs); The global terrestrial ecosystem.