Environmental Research Letters (Jan 2017)
Global land carbon sink response to temperature and precipitation varies with ENSO phase
- Yuanyuan Fang,
- Anna M Michalak,
- Christopher R Schwalm,
- Deborah N Huntzinger,
- Joseph A Berry,
- Philippe Ciais,
- Shilong Piao,
- Benjamin Poulter,
- Joshua B Fisher,
- Robert B Cook,
- Daniel Hayes,
- Maoyi Huang,
- Akihiko Ito,
- Atul Jain,
- Huimin Lei,
- Chaoqun Lu,
- Jiafu Mao,
- Nicholas C Parazoo,
- Shushi Peng,
- Daniel M Ricciuto,
- Xiaoying Shi,
- Bo Tao,
- Hanqin Tian,
- Weile Wang,
- Yaxing Wei,
- Jia Yang
Affiliations
- Yuanyuan Fang
- Department of Global Ecology , Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA, United States of America; Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
- Anna M Michalak
- Department of Global Ecology , Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA, United States of America
- Christopher R Schwalm
- Woods Hole Research Center , Falmouth, MA 02540, United States of America
- Deborah N Huntzinger
- School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability , Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 5694, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5694, United States of America
- Joseph A Berry
- Department of Global Ecology , Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA, United States of America
- Philippe Ciais
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement , IPSL-LSCE CEA CNRS UVSQ, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France
- Shilong Piao
- Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science, Peking University , Beijing, 100871, People’s Republic of China
- Benjamin Poulter
- Department of Ecology, Montana State University , Bozeman, MT, United States of America
- Joshua B Fisher
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA, United States of America
- Robert B Cook
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, United States of America
- Daniel Hayes
- School of Forest Resources, University of Maine , Orno, ME, United States of America
- Maoyi Huang
- Atmospheric and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , Richland, WA, United States of America
- Akihiko Ito
- National Institute for Environmental Studies , Tsukuba, Japan
- Atul Jain
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL, United States of America
- Huimin Lei
- State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing, People’s Republic of China
- Chaoqun Lu
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University , Ames, IA 50011, United States of America
- Jiafu Mao
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, United States of America
- Nicholas C Parazoo
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA, United States of America
- Shushi Peng
- Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
- Daniel M Ricciuto
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, United States of America
- Xiaoying Shi
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, United States of America
- Bo Tao
- Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, University of Kentucky , Lexington, KY, United States of America
- Hanqin Tian
- International Center for Climate and Global Change Research and School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University , Auburn, AL, United States of America
- Weile Wang
- Ames Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Moffett Field , CA, United States of America
- Yaxing Wei
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, United States of America
- Jia Yang
- International Center for Climate and Global Change Research and School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University , Auburn, AL, United States of America
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa6e8e
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 12,
no. 6
p. 064007
Abstract
Climate variability associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and its consequent impacts on land carbon sink interannual variability have been used as a basis for investigating carbon cycle responses to climate variability more broadly, and to inform the sensitivity of the tropical carbon budget to climate change. Past studies have presented opposing views about whether temperature or precipitation is the primary factor driving the response of the land carbon sink to ENSO. Here, we show that the dominant driver varies with ENSO phase. Whereas tropical temperature explains sink dynamics following El Niño conditions ( r _TG,P = 0.59, p < 0.01), the post La Niña sink is driven largely by tropical precipitation ( r _PG,T = −0.46, p = 0.04). This finding points to an ENSO-phase-dependent interplay between water availability and temperature in controlling the carbon uptake response to climate variations in tropical ecosystems. We further find that none of a suite of ten contemporary terrestrial biosphere models captures these ENSO-phase-dependent responses, highlighting a key uncertainty in modeling climate impacts on the future of the global land carbon sink.
Keywords
- climate-carbon feedback
- tropical ecosystems
- temperature
- precipitation
- El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
