title: Small global effect on terrestrial net primary production due to increased fossil fuel aerosol emissions from East Asia since the turn of the century.
abstract: The global terrestrial carbon sink has increased since the start of this century at a time of growing carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning. Here we test the hypothesis that increases in atmospheric aerosols from fossil fuel burning enhanced the diffuse light fraction and the efficiency of plant carbon uptake. Using a combination of models, we estimate that at global scale changes in light regimes from fossil fuel aerosol emissions had only a small negative effect on the increase in terrestrial net primary production over the period 1998-2010. Hereby, the substantial increases in fossil fuel aerosol emissions and plant carbon uptake over East Asia were effectively canceled by opposing trends across Europe and North America. This suggests that if the recent increase in the land carbon sink would be causally linked to fossil fuel emissions, it is unlikely via the effect of aerosols but due to other factors such as nitrogen deposition or nitrogen-carbon interactions.
authors: Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: O'Sullivan
authors: Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Rap
authors: Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK.
authors: C L
authors: CL
authors: Reddington
authors: Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK.
authors: D V
authors: DV
authors: Spracklen
authors: School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Gloor
authors: Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK.
authors: W
authors: W
authors: Buermann
keywords: East Asia; aerosol optical depth; diffuse radiation; fossil fuel aerosol emission; net primary production