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Vegetation‐Climate Feedbacks Enhance Spatial Heterogeneity of Pan‐Amazonian Ecosystem States Under Climate Change
Author(s) -
Wu Minchao,
Smith Benjamin,
Schurgers Guy,
Ahlström Anders,
Rummukainen Markku
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl092001
Subject(s) - environmental science , ecosystem , climate change , amazonian , biomass (ecology) , vegetation (pathology) , rainforest , ecology , atmospheric sciences , climatology , physical geography , amazon rainforest , geography , geology , medicine , pathology , biology
Abstract Amazonian ecosystems range from rainforest to open dryland vegetation, with a following decrease in biomass along the moisture gradient. Biomass can vary greatly at the ecological transition zone between grass dominated savannahs and the forest. It is not well understood if the transition zone could expand under climate change, and thereby reduce ecosystem stability and carbon storage in biomass. Here, we quantify such changes by using a high‐resolution regional Earth system model under RCP 8.5 climate scenario. We disentangle the effects of climate, CO 2 , and land use by considering vegetation‐climate feedbacks. Our results suggest that future climate change combined with elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentration tends to induce a larger spatial gradient of ecosystem states, increasing the transition area by ∼110% at the end of the century. Vegetation feedbacks generally amplify the climate effect by intensifying the climate‐induced warming and drought, further enhancing spatial heterogeneity.