Data-based perfect-deficit approach to understanding climate extremes and forest carbon assimilation capacity

Several lines of evidence suggest that the warming climate plays a vital role in driving certain types of extreme weather. The impact of warming and of extreme weather on forest carbon assimilation capacity is poorly known. Filling this knowledge gap is critical towards understanding the amount of c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental research letters 2014-06, Vol.9 (6), p.65002-9
Main Authors: Wei, Suhua, Yi, Chuixiang, Hendrey, George, Eaton, Timothy, Rustic, Gerald, Wang, Shaoqiang, Liu, Heping, Krakauer, Nir Y, Wang, Weiguo, Desai, Ankur R, Montagnani, Leonardo, Tha Paw U, Kyaw, Falk, Matthias, Black, Andrew, Bernhofer, Christian, Grünwald, Thomas, Laurila, Tuomas, Cescatti, Alessandro, Moors, Eddy, Bracho, Rosvel, Valentini, Riccardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
algorithm
Assimilation
Biological assimilation
Carbon
carbon assimilation capacity
Climate
climate extremes
Coniferous forests
Deciduous forests
Drought
Extreme weather
feedbacks
Forests
heat
net ecosystem exchange
perfect-deficit approach
Photosynthesis
Primary production
Reduction
respiration
Weather
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Summary:Several lines of evidence suggest that the warming climate plays a vital role in driving certain types of extreme weather. The impact of warming and of extreme weather on forest carbon assimilation capacity is poorly known. Filling this knowledge gap is critical towards understanding the amount of carbon that forests can hold. Here, we used a perfect-deficit approach to identify forest canopy photosynthetic capacity (CPC) deficits and analyze how they correlate to climate extremes, based on observational data measured by the eddy covariance method at 27 forest sites over 146 site-years. We found that droughts severely affect the carbon assimilation capacities of evergreen broadleaf forest (EBF) and deciduous broadleaf forest. The carbon assimilation capacities of Mediterranean forests were highly sensitive to climate extremes, while marine forest climates tended to be insensitive to climate extremes. Our estimates suggest an average global reduction of forest CPC due to unfavorable climate extremes of 6.3 Pg C (∼5.2% of global gross primary production) per growing season over 2001-2010, with EBFs contributing 52% of the total reduction.
ISSN:1748-9326
1748-9326
DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/065002