Geography
Terrestrial gross carbon dioxide uptake: Global distribution and covariation with climate
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) is the largest global CO 2 flux driving several ecosystem functions. We provide an observation-based estimate of this flux at 123 ± 8 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year-1) using eddy covariance flux data and various diagnostic models. Tropical forests and savannahs account for 60%. GPP over 40% of the vegetated land is associated with precipitation. State-of-the-art process-oriented biosphere models used for climate predictions exhibit a large between-model variation of GPP's latitudinal patterns and show higher spatial correlations between GPP and precipitation, suggesting the existence of missing processes or feedback mechanisms which attenuate the vegetation response to climate. Our estimates of spatially distributed GPP and its covariation with climate can help improve coupled climate-carbon cycle process models.
Publication Title
Science
Publication Date
8-13-2010
Volume
329
Issue
5993
First Page
834
Last Page
838
ISSN
0036-8075
DOI
10.1126/science.1184984
Keywords
measurement, climate, terrestrial ecosystems, atmospheric carbon dioxide
Repository Citation
Beer, Christian; Reichstein, Markus; Tomelleri, Enrico; Ciais, Philippe; Jung, Martin; Carvalhais, Nuno; Rödenbeck, Christian; Arain, M. Altaf; Baldocchi, Dennis; Bonan, Gordon B.; Bondeau, Alberte; Cescatti, Alessandro; Lasslop, Gitta; Lindroth, Anders; Lomas, Mark; Luyssaert, Sebastiaan; Margolis, Hank; Oleson, Keith W.; Roupsard, Olivier; Veenendaal, Elmar; Viovy, Nicolas; Williams, Christopher; Woodward, F. Ian; and Papale, Dario, "Terrestrial gross carbon dioxide uptake: Global distribution and covariation with climate" (2010). Geography. 912.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/912
