Increased control of vegetation on global terrestrial energy fluxes

Giovanni Forzieri (), Diego G. Miralles, Philippe Ciais, Ramdane Alkama, Youngryel Ryu, Gregory Duveiller, Ke Zhang, Eddy Robertson, Markus Kautz, Brecht Martens, Chongya Jiang, Almut Arneth, Goran Georgievski, Wei Li, Guido Ceccherini, Peter Anthoni, Peter Lawrence, Andy Wiltshire, Julia Pongratz, Shilong Piao, Stephen Sitch, Daniel S. Goll, Vivek K. Arora, Sebastian Lienert, Danica Lombardozzi, Etsushi Kato, Julia E. M. S. Nabel, Hanqin Tian, Pierre Friedlingstein and Alessandro Cescatti
Additional contact information
Giovanni Forzieri: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Diego G. Miralles: Ghent University
Philippe Ciais: LSCE CEA CNRS UPSACLAY IPSL
Ramdane Alkama: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Youngryel Ryu: Seoul National University
Gregory Duveiller: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Ke Zhang: Hohai University
Eddy Robertson: Met Office
Markus Kautz: Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg
Brecht Martens: Ghent University
Chongya Jiang: Seoul National University
Almut Arneth: KIT, IMK-IFU
Goran Georgievski: Institute of Coastal Research
Wei Li: Tsinghua University
Guido Ceccherini: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Peter Anthoni: KIT, IMK-IFU
Peter Lawrence: NCAR
Andy Wiltshire: Met Office
Julia Pongratz: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Shilong Piao: Peking University
Stephen Sitch: University of Exeter
Daniel S. Goll: University of Augsburg
Vivek K. Arora: University of Victoria
Sebastian Lienert: Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern
Danica Lombardozzi: NCAR
Etsushi Kato: Institute of Applied Energy (IAE)
Julia E. M. S. Nabel: Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Hanqin Tian: Auburn University
Pierre Friedlingstein: University of Exeter
Alessandro Cescatti: European Commission, Joint Research Centre

Nature Climate Change, 2020, vol. 10, issue 4, 356-362

Abstract: Abstract Changes in vegetation structure are expected to influence the redistribution of heat and moisture; however, how variations in the leaf area index (LAI) affect this global energy partitioning is not yet quantified. Here, we estimate that a unit change in LAI leads to 3.66 ± 0.45 and −3.26 ± 0.41 W m−2 in latent (LE) and sensible (H) fluxes, respectively, over the 1982–2016 period. Analysis of an ensemble of data-driven products shows that these sensitivities increase by about 20% over the observational period, prominently in regions with a limited water supply, probably because of an increased transpiration/evaporation ratio. Global greening has caused a decrease in the Bowen ratio (B = H/LE) of −0.010 ± 0.002 per decade, which is attributable to the increased evaporative surface. Such a direct LAI effect on energy fluxes is largely modulated by plant functional types (PFTs) and background climate conditions. Land surface models (LSMs) misrepresent this vegetation control, possibly due to underestimation of the biophysical responses to changes in the water availability and poor representation of LAI dynamics.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-0717-0

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