Hydrologic resilience and Amazon productivity

Anders Ahlström (), Josep G. Canadell, Guy Schurgers, Minchao Wu, Joseph A. Berry, Kaiyu Guan and Robert B. Jackson
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Anders Ahlström: Stanford University
Josep G. Canadell: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Guy Schurgers: University of Copenhagen
Minchao Wu: Lund University
Joseph A. Berry: Carnegie Institution for Science
Kaiyu Guan: University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, W503, Turner Hall
Robert B. Jackson: Stanford University

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The Amazon rainforest is disproportionately important for global carbon storage and biodiversity. The system couples the atmosphere and land, with moist forest that depends on convection to sustain gross primary productivity and growth. Earth system models that estimate future climate and vegetation show little agreement in Amazon simulations. Here we show that biases in internally generated climate, primarily precipitation, explain most of the uncertainty in Earth system model results; models, empirical data and theory converge when precipitation biases are accounted for. Gross primary productivity, above-ground biomass and tree cover align on a hydrological relationship with a breakpoint at ~2000 mm annual precipitation, where the system transitions between water and radiation limitation of evapotranspiration. The breakpoint appears to be fairly stable in the future, suggesting resilience of the Amazon to climate change. Changes in precipitation and land use are therefore more likely to govern biomass and vegetation structure in Amazonia.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00306-z

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