Inhibitive Effects of Recent Exceeding Air Temperature Optima of Vegetation Productivity and Increasing Water Limitation on Photosynthesis Reversed Global Greening

Chen，Baozhang1,2,3; Ke，Yu1,4; Ciais，Philippe4; Zeng，Zhenzhong5; Black，Andy6; Lv，Honggang7; Huang，Mengtian8; Yuan，Wenping9; Xiao，Xiangming10; Fang，Junjun1; Hou，Kun1; Wang，Ying Ping11; Luo，Yiqi12

2022-11-01

10.1029/2022EF002788

Earth's Future   Impact Factor & Quartile

2328-4277

Global terrestrial vegetation dynamics have been rapidly altered by climate change. A widespread vegetation greenness over a large part of the planet from the 1980s to early this century has been reported, whereas weakening of CO fertilization effects and increasing climate extremes and the adverse impact of increasing rate of warming and severity of drought on vegetation growth were also reported. Earth system models project that the land carbon sink will decrease in size in response to an increase in warming during this century. How global vegetation is changing during this century in response to global warming and water availability across spatial and temporal scales remains uncertain. Our understanding of the widespread vegetation greening or browning processes and identifying the biogeochemical mechanisms remain incomplete. Here we use multiple long-term satellite leaf area index (LAI) records to investigate vegetation growth trends from 1982 to 2018. We find that the widespread increase of growing-season integrated LAI (greening) since 1980s was reversed (p-value < 0.05) around the year 2000 over 90% of the global vegetated area, and continued in only 10% of the global vegetated area. The reversal of greening trend was largely explained by the inhibitive effects of excessive optimal temperature on photosynthesis in most of the tropics and low latitudes, and by increasing water limitation (increasing in atmospheric vapor pressure deficit and decreasing in soil water availability) in the northern high latitudes (>45°N). Overall, the reversal of greening trend since 2000 weakened the negative feedback of carbon sequestration on the climatic system and should be considered in the strategies for climate warming mitigation and adaptation. Our findings of the diversity of processes that drive browning across bioclimatic-zones and ecosystems and of how those driving processes are changing would enhance our ability to project global future vegetation change and its climatic and abiotic consequences.

atmospheric vapor pressure deficit global warming optimum temperature for photosynthesis reversal of greening trend soil water availability vegetation growth water limitation

SCI

English

Others

National Natural Science Foundation of China[41977404];

Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Geology ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

Environmental Sciences ; Geosciences, Multidisciplinary ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

WOS:000928058500001

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION

2-s2.0-85143237836

Scopus

1.School of Remote Sensing and Geomatics Engineering,Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology,Nanjing,China
2.State Key Laboratory of Resource and Environmental Information System,Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,China
3.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,China
4.Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement,CEA-CNRS-UVSQ,Université Paris-Saclay,Gif-sur-Yvette,France
5.State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water–Groundwater Pollution Control,School of Environmental Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,China
6.Faculty of Land and Food Systems,University of British Columbia,Vancouver,Canada
7.Key Laboratory of Marine Hazards Forecasting,National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center,Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China,Beijing,China
8.Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences,Haidian,China
9.School of Atmospheric Sciences,Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies,Zhuhai Key Laboratory of Dynamics Urban Climate and Ecology,Sun Yat-sen University,Zhuhai,China
10.Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology,Center for Earth Observation and Modeling,University of Oklahoma,Norman,United States
11.Oceans and Atmosphere,Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation,Aspendale,Australia
12.Department of Biological Sciences,Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss),Northern Arizona University,Flagstaff,United States

Chen，Baozhang,Ke，Yu,Ciais，Philippe,et al. Inhibitive Effects of Recent Exceeding Air Temperature Optima of Vegetation Productivity and Increasing Water Limitation on Photosynthesis Reversed Global Greening[J]. Earth's Future,2022,10(11).

Chen，Baozhang.,Ke，Yu.,Ciais，Philippe.,Zeng，Zhenzhong.,Black，Andy.,...&Luo，Yiqi.(2022).Inhibitive Effects of Recent Exceeding Air Temperature Optima of Vegetation Productivity and Increasing Water Limitation on Photosynthesis Reversed Global Greening.Earth's Future,10(11).

Chen，Baozhang,et al."Inhibitive Effects of Recent Exceeding Air Temperature Optima of Vegetation Productivity and Increasing Water Limitation on Photosynthesis Reversed Global Greening".Earth's Future 10.11(2022).