Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents

Summary, in English

Understanding the relationships between climate and carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems is critical to predict future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide because of the potential accelerating effects of positive climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. However, directly observed relationships between climate and terrestrial CO2 exchange with the atmosphere across biomes and continents are lacking. Here we present data describing the relationships between net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE) and climate factors as measured using the eddy covariance method at 125 unique sites in various ecosystems over six continents with a total of 559 site-years. We find that NEE observed at eddy covariance sites is (1) a strong function of mean annual temperature at mid-and high-latitudes, (2) a strong function of dryness at mid-and low-latitudes, and (3) a function of both temperature and dryness around the mid-latitudinal belt (45 degrees N). The sensitivity of NEE to mean annual temperature breaks down at similar to 16 degrees C (a threshold value of mean annual temperature), above which no further increase of CO2 uptake with temperature was observed and dryness influence overrules temperature influence.

• Author: Chuixiang Yi; Daniel Ricciuto; Runze Li; John Wolbeck; Xiyan Xu; Mats Nilsson; Luis Aires; John D. Albertson; Christof Ammann; M. Altaf Arain; Alessandro C. de Araujo; Marc Aubinet; Mika Aurela; Zoltan Barcza; Alan Barr; Paul Berbigier; Jason Beringer; Christian Bernhofer; Andrew T. Black; Paul V. Bolstad; Fred C. Bosveld; Mark S. J. Broadmeadow; Nina Buchmann; Sean P. Burns; Pierre Cellier; Jingming Chen; Jiquan Chen; Philippe Ciais; Robert Clement; Bruce D. Cook; Peter S. Curtis; D. Bryan Dail; Ebba Dellwik; Nicolas Delpierre; Ankur R. Desai; Sabina Dore; Danilo Dragoni; Bert G. Drake; Eric Dufrene; Allison Dunn; Jan Elbers; Werner Eugster; Matthias Falk; Christian Feigenwinter; Lawrence B. Flanagan; Thomas Foken; John Frank; Juerg Fuhrer; Damiano Gianelle; Allen Goldstein; Mike Goulden; Andre Granier; Thomas Gruenwald; Lianhong Gu; Haiqiang Guo; Albin Hammerle; Shijie Han; Niall P. Hanan; Laszlo Haszpra; Bernard Heinesch; Carole Helfter; Dimmie Hendriks; Lindsay B. Hutley; Andreas Ibrom; Cor Jacobs; Torbjörn Johansson; Marjan Jongen; Gabriel Katul; Gerard Kiely; Katja Klumpp; Alexander Knohl; Thomas Kolb; Werner L. Kutsch; Peter Lafleur; Tuomas Laurila; Ray Leuning; Anders Lindroth; Heping Liu; Benjamin Loubet; Giovanni Manca; Michal Marek; Hank A. Margolis; Timothy A. Martin; William J. Massman; Roser Matamala; Giorgio Matteucci; Harry McCaughey; Lutz Merbold; Tilden Meyers; Mirco Migliavacca; Franco Miglietta; Laurent Misson; Meelis Mölder; John Moncrieff; Russell K. Monson; Leonardo Montagnani; Mario Montes-Helu; Eddy Moors; Christine Moureaux; Mukufute M. Mukelabai; J. William Munger; May Myklebust; Zoltan Nagy; Asko Noormets; Walter Oechel; Ram Oren; Stephen G. Pallardy; Tha Paw U. Kyaw; Joao S. Pereira; Kim Pilegaard; Krisztina Pinter; Casimiro Pio; Gabriel Pita; Thomas L. Powell; Serge Rambal; James T. Randerson; Celso von Randow; Corinna Rebmann; Janne Rinne; Federica Rossi; Nigel Roulet; Ronald J. Ryel; Jorgen Sagerfors; Nobuko Saigusa; Maria Jose Sanz; Giuseppe-Scarascia Mugnozza; Hans Peter Schmid; Guenther Seufert; Mario Siqueira; Jean-Francois Soussana; Gregory Starr; Mark A. Sutton; John Tenhunen; Zoltan Tuba; Juha-Pekka Tuovinen; Riccardo Valentini; Christoph S. Vogel; Jingxin Wang; Shaoqiang Wang; Weiguo Wang; Lisa R. Welp; Xuefa Wen; Sonia Wharton; Matthew Wilkinson; Christopher A. Williams; Georg Wohlfahrt; Susumu Yamamoto; Guirui Yu; Roberto Zampedri; Bin Zhao; Xinquan Zhao
• Department/s: Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science; eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration; BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
• Publishing year: 2010
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Environmental Research Letters
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 3
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/5/3/034007
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Topic: Physical Geography
• Keywords: biomes; eddy flux; dryness; temperature; terrestrial carbon sequestration; NEE; climate control; photosynthesis; respiration; global carbon; cycle
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1748-9326