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Influence of Vegetation Growth on the Enhanced Seasonality of Atmospheric CO 2
Author(s) -
Yuan Wenping,
Piao Shilong,
Qin Dahe,
Dong Wenjie,
Xia Jiangzhou,
Lin Hui,
Chen Min
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
global biogeochemical cycles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.512
H-Index - 187
eISSN - 1944-9224
pISSN - 0886-6236
DOI - 10.1002/2017gb005802
Subject(s) - seasonality , vegetation (pathology) , environmental science , normalized difference vegetation index , climatology , atmospheric sciences , terrestrial ecosystem , growing season , ecosystem , ecology , climate change , biology , geology , medicine , pathology
The amplitude of seasonal fluctuations in concentrations of atmospheric CO 2 has increased over recent decades. Model‐based studies suggest that this increase could be the result of enhanced vegetation growth during the growing season and ecosystem respiration in the nongrowing season. Here we investigated seasonal changes in vegetation growth derived from satellite‐based observations of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from 1982 to 2013. We found notable agreement between these observations and interannual variations of seasonality of global atmospheric CO 2 , suggesting that terrestrial vegetation growth is the dominant driver of the seasonality of the concentration of atmospheric CO 2 . Specifically, we found that the trend in seasonality of global vegetation growth was not continuous from 1982 to 2013 and that it increased substantially after 2001. In response, the trend of seasonality in the concentration of atmospheric CO 2 stalled from 1982 to 2000 but increased from 2001 onward. This 2001 change in the growth seasonality trend was largely a result of decreased NDVI during spring and winter. CMIP5 models were unable to reproduce this observed seasonality. Our results showed the dominant role played by vegetation growth in determining atmospheric CO 2 seasonality, highlighting the need to improve representation of vegetation growth in current terrestrial models to adequately indicate seasonal changes in the concentration of atmospheric CO 2 .