title: Large historical growth in global terrestrial gross primary production.
abstract: Growth in terrestrial gross primary production (GPP)-the amount of carbon dioxide that is 'fixed' into organic material through the photosynthesis of land plants-may provide a negative feedback for climate change. It remains uncertain, however, to what extent biogeochemical processes can suppress global GPP growth. As a consequence, modelling estimates of terrestrial carbon storage, and of feedbacks between the carbon cycle and climate, remain poorly constrained. Here we present a global, measurement-based estimate of GPP growth during the twentieth century that is based on long-term atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS) records, derived from ice-core, firn and ambient air samples. We interpret these records using a model that simulates changes in COS concentration according to changes in its sources and sinks-including a large sink that is related to GPP. We find that the observation-based COS record is most consistent with simulations of climate and the carbon cycle that assume large GPP growth during the twentieth century (31% ± 5% growth; mean ± 95% confidence interval). Although this COS analysis does not directly constrain models of future GPP growth, it does provide a global-scale benchmark for historical carbon-cycle simulations.
authors.affiliation: Sierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, California 95343, USA.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.affiliation: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Seibt
authors.affiliation: Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Montzka
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, CNRS/CEA/UVSQ, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Launois
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, CNRS/CEA/UVSQ, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Belviso
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, CNRS/CEA/UVSQ, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bopp
authors.affiliation: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki 00560, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laine
mesh_terms: D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D057965:Carbon Sequestration; D057231:Climate Change / Q000266:history* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005246:Feedback; D062305:Geographic Mapping; D049673:History, 20th Century; D046448:Ice Cover / Q000737:chemistry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010788:Photosynthesis; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism; D013461:Sulfur Oxides / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D013461:Sulfur Oxides; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; C010063:carbonyl sulfide