Historically inconsistent productivity and respiration fluxes in the global terrestrial carbon cycle

Jinshi Jian; Vanessa Bailey; Kalyn Dorheim; Alexandra G Konings; Dalei Hao; Alexey N Shiklomanov; Abigail Snyder; Meredith Steele; Munemasa Teramoto; Rodrigo Vargas; Ben Bond-Lamberty

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29391-5

Historically inconsistent productivity and respiration fluxes in the global terrestrial carbon cycle

Nat Commun. 2022 Apr 1;13(1):1733. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29391-5.

Authors

Jinshi Jian^{1

2

3

4}, Vanessa Bailey⁵, Kalyn Dorheim⁶, Alexandra G Konings⁷, Dalei Hao⁸, Alexey N Shiklomanov⁹, Abigail Snyder⁶, Meredith Steele¹⁰, Munemasa Teramoto^{11

12}, Rodrigo Vargas¹³, Ben Bond-Lamberty⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China. jinshi@vt.edu.
² Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland-College Park, 5825 University Research Court, Suite 3500, College Park, MD, 20740, USA. jinshi@vt.edu.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. jinshi@vt.edu.
⁴ Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China. jinshi@vt.edu.
⁵ Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99354, USA.
⁶ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland-College Park, 5825 University Research Court, Suite 3500, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
⁷ Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, 473 Via Ortega, Room 140, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
⁸ Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99354, USA.
⁹ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd., Building 33, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA.
¹⁰ School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, 183 Aq Quad Ln, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.
¹¹ National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, 305-8506, Japan.
¹² Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, 1390 Hamasaka, Tottori, 680-0001, Japan.
¹³ Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA.

Abstract

The terrestrial carbon cycle is a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. Its dominant fluxes, gross primary productivity (GPP), and respiration (in particular soil respiration, R_S), are typically estimated from independent satellite-driven models and upscaled in situ measurements, respectively. We combine carbon-cycle flux estimates and partitioning coefficients to show that historical estimates of global GPP and R_S are irreconcilable. When we estimate GPP based on R_S measurements and some assumptions about R_S:GPP ratios, we found the resulted global GPP values (bootstrap mean [Formula: see text] Pg C yr^-1) are significantly higher than most GPP estimates reported in the literature ([Formula: see text] Pg C yr^-1). Similarly, historical GPP estimates imply a soil respiration flux (Rs_GPP, bootstrap mean of [Formula: see text] Pg C yr^-1) statistically inconsistent with most published R_S values ([Formula: see text] Pg C yr^-1), although recent, higher, GPP estimates are narrowing this gap. Furthermore, global R_S:GPP ratios are inconsistent with spatial averages of this ratio calculated from individual sites as well as CMIP6 model results. This discrepancy has implications for our understanding of carbon turnover times and the terrestrial sensitivity to climate change. Future efforts should reconcile the discrepancies associated with calculations for GPP and Rs to improve estimates of the global carbon budget.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Carbon Cycle*
Carbon Dioxide
Climate Change*
Respiration

Substances

Carbon Dioxide
Carbon

Grants and funding

80NSSC18K0179/ImNASA/Intramural NASA/United States