Joint control of terrestrial gross primary productivity by plant phenology and physiology.
Terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP) varies greatly over time and space. A better understanding of this variability is necessary for more accurate predictions of the future climate-carbon cycle feedback. Recent studies have suggested that variability in GPP is driven by a broad range of biotic and abiotic factors operating mainly through changes in vegetation phenology and physiological processes. However, it is still unclear how plant phenology and physiology can be integrated to explain the spatiotemporal variability of terrestrial GPP. Based on analyses of eddy-covariance and satellite-derived data, we decomposed annual terrestrial GPP into the length of the CO2 uptake period (CUP) and the seasonal maximal capacity of CO2 uptake (GPPmax). The product of CUP and GPPmax explained >90% of the temporal GPP variability in most areas of North America during 2000-2010 and the spatial GPP variation among globally distributed eddy flux tower sites. It also explained GPP response to the European heatwave in 2003 (r(2) = 0.90) and GPP recovery after a fire disturbance in South Dakota (r(2) = 0.88). Additional analysis of the eddy-covariance flux data shows that the interbiome variation in annual GPP is better explained by that in GPPmax than CUP. These findings indicate that terrestrial GPP is jointly controlled by ecosystem-level plant phenology and photosynthetic capacity, and greater understanding of GPPmax and CUP responses to environmental and biological variations will, thus, improve predictions of GPP over time and space.
Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019; jxia@ou.edu sniu@igsnrr.ac.cn yluo@ou.edu.
Jianyang
J
Xia
Synthesis Research Center of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing 100101, China; jxia@ou.edu sniu@igsnrr.ac.cn yluo@ou.edu.
Shuli
S
Niu
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France;
Philippe
P
Ciais
Department of Biology, University of Antwerpen, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium;
Ivan A
IA
Janssens
Center for Global Change and Earth Observations and Department of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824;
Jiquan
J
Chen
Climate and Air Pollution Group, Federal Research Station Agroscope, CH-8046 Zurich, Switzerland;
Christof
C
Ammann
School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
Altaf
A
Arain
Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80302;
Peter D
PD
Blanken
European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, 21027 Ispra, Italy;
Alessandro
A
Cescatti
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UMR 1137 Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique-Université de Lorraine, 54280 Champenoux, France;
Damien
D
Bonal
Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Eidgenössiche Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;
Nina
N
Buchmann
Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210;
Peter S
PS
Curtis
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China;
Shiping
S
Chen
Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019;
Jinwei
J
Dong
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada TIK 3M4;
Lawrence B
LB
Flanagan
Tropospheric sounding, assimilation, and modeling group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109;
Christian
C
Frankenberg
Institute of Biometeorology, 40129 Bologna, Italy;
Teodoro
T
Georgiadis
Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284-2012;
Christopher M
CM
Gough
Department of Biological Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209;
Dafeng
D
Hui
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland;
Gerard
G
Kiely
Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019; Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209;
Jianwei
J
Li
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark;
Magnus
M
Lund
Institute for Mediterranean Agricultural and Forest Systems, National Research Council, 80040 Ercolano, Italy;
Vincenzo
V
Magliulo
Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems and Bioresources Department, Fondazione Edmund Mach, 38010 S. Michele all'Adige, Italy;
Barbara
B
Marcolla
Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Eidgenössiche Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;
Lutz
L
Merbold
Servizi Forestali, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, 39100 Bolzano, Italy; Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bolzano, 39100 Bolzano, Italy;
Leonardo
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2957-9071
L
Montagnani
Earth System Science and Climate Change Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen UR, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands;
Eddy J
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2309-2887
EJ
Moors
Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark;
Jørgen E
JE
Olesen
Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Center for Excellence in Tibetan Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China;
Shilong
S
Piao
Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council, 50145 Florence, Italy;
Antonio
A
Raschi
Cirad-Persyst, UMR Ecologie Fonctionnelle and Biogéochimie des Sols et des Agro-Ecosystémes, 34060 Montpellier, France; Tropical Agricultural Centre for Research and High Education, 7170 Turrialba, Costa Rica;
Olivier
O
Roupsard
School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583-0961;
Andrew E
AE
Suyker
Department of Meteorology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, 60649 Poznan, Poland;
Marek
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1225-9170
M
Urbaniak
Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council, 50145 Florence, Italy;
Francesco P
FP
Vaccari
A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119071, Russia;
Andrej
A
Varlagin
Departments of Physics and Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland;
Timo
T
Vesala
Centre for Sustainable Forestry and Climate Change, Forest Research, Farnham GU10 4LH, United Kingdom;
Matthew
M
Wilkinson
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
Ensheng
E
Weng
Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria; Institute for Applied Remote Sensing and Institute for Alpine Environment, European Academy of Bolzano, 39100 Bolzano, Italy;
Georg
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3080-6702
G
Wohlfahrt
School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China; and.
Liming
L
Yan
Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019; Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China jxia@ou.edu sniu@igsnrr.ac.cn yluo@ou.edu.
Yiqi
Y
Luo
D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D010944:Plants; D013023:South Dakota
climate extreme; ecosystem carbon uptake; growing season length; photosynthetic capacity; spatiotemporal variability