Assessing Global Vegetation–Climate Feedbacks from Observations*

Abstract

The feedback between global vegetation greenness and surface air temperature and precipitation is assessed using remote sensing observations of monthly fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) for 1982 to 2000 with a 2.5° grid resolution. Lead/lag correlations are used to infer vegetation–climate interactions. Furthermore, a statistical method is used to quantify the efficiency of vegetation feedback on climate in the observations. This feedback analysis provides a first quantitative assessment of global vegetation feedback on climate. In northern mid- and high latitudes, vegetation variability is found to be driven predominantly by temperature; in the meantime, vegetation also exerts a strong positive feedback on temperature with the feedback accounting for over 10%–25% of the total monthly temperature variance. The strongest positive feedback occurs in the boreal regions of southern Canada/northern United States, northern Europe, and southern Siberia, where the feedback efficiency exceeds 1°C (0.1 FPAR)−1. Over most of the Tropics and subtropics (outside the equatorial rain belt), vegetation is driven primarily by precipitation. However, little vegetation feedback is found on local precipitation when averaged year-round, with the feedback explained variance usually accounting for less than 5% of the total precipitation variance. Nevertheless, in a few isolated small regions such as Northeast Brazil, East Africa, East Asia, and northern Australia, there appears to be some positive vegetation feedback on local precipitation, with the feedback efficiency over 1 cm month−1 (0.1 FPAR)−1. Further studies suggest a significant seasonal variation of the vegetation feedback in some regions. A preliminary analysis also seems to suggest an enhanced intensity of the vegetation feedback, especially on precipitation, at longer time scales and over a larger grid box area. Limitations and implications of the assessment of vegetation feedback are also discussed. The assessed vegetation feedback is shown to be valuable for the evaluation of vegetation–climate feedback in coupled climate–vegetation models.

Late Quaternary vegetation-climate feedbacks

“…Moreover, comparison of present-day climate simulations with satellitederived information could be helpful (Wang et al, 2005a). Based on the statistical analysis of remote sensing observations, for example, Liu et al (2006a) suggest strong positive boreal vegetation-temperature feedback.…”

Ecohydrological optimality in the Northeast China Transect

“…It strongly influences the exchange of energy, substances and moisture between land and atmosphere through photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration (Graetz, 1991;Mcpherson, 2007). At the same time, the vegetation growth condition is largely affected by climate factors, such as precipitation, air temperature and greenhouse gases (Füssler and Gassmann, 2000;Lotsch et al, 2003;Liu et al, 2006).…”

Attribution Analyses of Impacts of Environmental Changes on Streamflow and Sediment Load in a Mountainous Basin, Vietnam

“…As a result, human-induced land cover changes were the main human activities in our research period since no other drastic human activities were found in the DRB [4,16,17]. Although the spatial distribution of land cover is dominantly controlled by climate on a global scale [41][42][43], recent studies concluded that regional land cover change has been mainly changed by humans [44][45][46].Our results support that human actions are the main factor altering the land cover changes in the DRB through analyzing differences between satellite LAI and simulated LAI from Biome-BGC model. Deforestation was confirmed as the main land cover change in the DRB [16,17,19].…”

“…Deforestation was confirmed as the main land cover change in the DRB [16,17,19]. On the other hand, potential LAI without impacts of human activities indicated that forests would have flourished more due to the increased rainfall [42,43]. From the view of different seasons, changes of the human-induced land cover in the dry season are strongest because it is the best season of logging in the DRB.…”