Precipitation amount, seasonality and frequency regulate carbon cycling of a semi-arid grassland ecosystem in Inner Mongolia, China: A modeling analysis

Peng, Shushi; Piao, Shilong; Shen, Zehao; Ciais, Philippe; Sun, Zhenzhong; Chen, Shiping; Bacour, Cédric; Peylin, P.; Chen, Anping

doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2013.02.002

Cited by 152 publications

(117 citation statements)

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“…The sign of the asymmetric response of grassland productivity to altered rainfall thus depends on 30 the magnitude of rainfall anomalies, the size-distribution of rainfall events, and ecosystem mean state (Gherardi and Sala, 2015; Biogeosciences Discuss. Parolari et al, 2015;Peng et al, 2013).Relationships between precipitation and grassland productivity have previously been studied with site observations (Hsu et al, 2012;Knapp et al, 2017b;Luo et al, 2017;Wilcox et al, 2017;Estiarte et al, 2016), but they remain to be quantified and characterized in ecosystem models used for diagnostic and future projections of the coupled carbon-water system in grasslands, in particular grid-based models used as the land surface component of Earth System Models. In this study, we aim to evaluate 5 the responses of simulated productivity to altered precipitation from fourteen ecosystem models at three sites representing dry, mesic, and moist rainfall regimes.…”

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“…This can be explained by the conditions of other climatic factors (for example, temperature, radiation, and vapor pressure) that may be different in corresponding dry and wet years, and 20 discrepancies of precipitation timing and frequency also exist between dry and wet years. All these uncontrolled factors may contribute to the large uncertainties of asymmetric responses from inter-annual variations (Chou et al, 2008;Peng et al, 2013;Robertson et al, 2009). …”

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“…Only a few previous model studies have directly linked the responses of grassland primary productivity to altered precipitation at field observation sites (Peng et al, 2013;Zhou et al, 2008;Fatichi and Ivanov, 2014). Peng et al (2013) conducted an analysis with a process-based model (ORCHIDEE 2-layer version) to address how precipitation changes regulate carbon cycling in a semi-arid grassland ecosystem in northern China.…”

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“…Peng et al (2013) conducted an analysis with a process-based model (ORCHIDEE 2-layer version) to address how precipitation changes regulate carbon cycling in a semi-arid grassland ecosystem in northern China. Zhou et al (2008) modeled the patterns of nonlinearity in ecosystem responses to multiple climatic factors (temperature, precipitation and CO2) at a tallgrass prairie site in the central…”

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Asymmetric Responses of Primary Productivity to Altered Precipitation Simulated by Ecosystem Models across Three Longterm Grassland Sites

Wu¹,

Ciais²,

Viovy³

et al. 2018

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Changes in precipitation variability are known to influence grassland growth. Field measurements of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in temperate grasslands suggest that both positive and negative asymmetric responses to changes in precipitation may occur. Under normally variable precipitation regimes, wet years typically result in ANPP gains being larger 5 than ANPP declines in dry years (positive asymmetry), whereas increases in ANPP are lower in magnitude in extreme wet years compared to reductions during extreme drought (negative asymmetry). Whether ecosystem models that couple carbonwater system in grasslands are capable of simulating these non-symmetrical ANPP responses is an unresolved question. In this study, we evaluated the simulated responses of temperate grassland primary productivity to scenarios of altered precipitation with fourteen ecosystem models at three sites, Shortgrass Steppe (SGS), Konza Prairie (KNZ) and Stubai Valley meadow 10 (STU), spanning a rainfall gradient from dry to moist. We found that: (1) Gross primary productivity (GPP), NPP, ANPP and belowground NPP (BNPP) showed concave-down nonlinear response curves to altered precipitation in all the models, but with different curvatures and mean values. (2) The slopes of spatial relationships (across sites) between modeled primary productivity and precipitation were steeper than the temporal slopes obtained from inter-annual variations, consistent with empirical data. (3) The asymmetry of the responses of modeled primary productivity under normal inter-annual precipitation 15 variability differed among models, and the median of the model-ensemble suggested a negative asymmetry across the three sites, in contrast to empirical studies. (4) The median sensitivity of modeled productivity to rainfall consistently suggested greater negative impacts with reduced precipitation than positive effects with increased precipitation under extreme conditions. This study indicates that most models overestimate the extent of negative drought effects and/or underestimate the impacts of increased precipitation on primary productivity under normal climate conditions, highlighting the need for improving eco- 20hydrological processes in models. IntroductionPrecipitation is a key climatic determinant of ecosystem productivity, especially in grasslands which limits productivity over the majority of the globe (Lambers et al., 2008;Sala et al., 1988;Hsu et al., 2012;Beer et al., 2010). Climate models project substantial changes in amounts and frequencies of precipitation regimes worldwide, and this is supported by observational 25 data (Karl and Trenberth, 2003; Donat et al., 2016;Fischer and Knutti, 2016). Potential for increasing occurrence and severity of droughts and increased heavy rainfall events related to global warming will likely affect grassland growth Gherardi and Sala, 2015;Lau et al., 2013;Reichstein et al., 2013). As a consequence, better understanding of the responses of grassland productivity to altered precipitation is needed ...

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Asymmetric Responses of Primary Productivity to Altered Precipitation Simulated by Ecosystem Models across Three Longterm Grassland Sites

Wu¹,

Ciais²,

Viovy³

et al. 2018

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Joint assimilation of eddy covariance flux measurements and FAPAR products over temperate forests within a process‐oriented biosphere model

et al. 2015

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We investigate the benefits of assimilating in situ and satellite data of the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) relative to eddy covariance flux measurements for the optimization of parameters of the ORCHIDEE (Organizing Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic Ecosystem) biosphere model. We focus on model parameters related to carbon fixation, respiration, and phenology. The study relies on two sites-Fontainebleau (deciduous broadleaf forest) and Puechabon (Mediterranean broadleaf evergreen forest)-where measurements of net carbon exchange (NEE) and latent heat (LE) fluxes are available at the same time as FAPAR products derived from ground measurements or derived from spaceborne observations at high (SPOT (Satellite Pour l′Observation de la Terre)) and medium (MERIS (MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer)) spatial resolutions. We compare the different FAPAR products, analyze their consistency with the in situ fluxes, and then evaluate the potential benefits of jointly assimilating flux and FAPAR data. The assimilation of FAPAR data leads to a degradation of the model-data agreement with respect to NEE at the two sites. It is caused by the change in leaf area required to fit the magnitude of the various FAPAR products. Assimilating daily NEE and LE fluxes, however, has a marginal impact on the simulated FAPAR. The results suggest that the main advantage of including FAPAR data is the ability to constrain the timing of leaf onset and senescence for deciduous ecosystems, which is best achieved by normalizing FAPAR time series. The joint assimilation of flux and FAPAR data leads to a model-data improvement across all variables similar to when each data stream is used independently, corresponding, however, to different and likely improved parameter values.

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Variations of net ecosystem production due to seasonal precipitation differences in a tropical dry forest of northwest Mexico

et al. 2015

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Due to their large extent and high primary productivity, tropical dry forests (TDF) are important contributors to atmospheric carbon exchanges in subtropical and tropical regions. In northwest Mexico, a bimodal precipitation regime that includes winter precipitation derived from Pacific storms and summer precipitation from the North American monsoon (NAM) couples water availability with ecosystem processes. We investigated the net ecosystem production of a TDF ecosystem using a 4.5 year record of water and carbon fluxes obtained from the eddy covariance method complemented with remotely sensed data. We identified a large CO2 efflux at the start of the summer season that is strongly related to the preceding winter precipitation and greenness. Since this CO2 efflux occurs prior to vegetation green‐up, we infer that respiration is mainly due to decomposition of soil organic matter accumulated from the prior growing season. Overall, ecosystem respiration has an important effect on the net ecosystem production but can be overwhelmed by the strength of the primary productivity during the NAM. Precipitation characteristics during NAM have significant controls on sustaining carbon fixation in the TDF into the fall season. We identified that a threshold of ~350 to 400 mm of monsoon precipitation leads to a switch in the annual carbon balance in the TDF ecosystem from a net source (+102 g C/m2/yr) to a net sink (−249 g C/m2/yr). This monsoonal precipitation threshold is typically exceeded one out of every 2 years. The close coupling of winter and summer periods with respect to carbon fluxes suggests that the annual carbon balance is dependent on precipitation amounts in both seasons in TDF ecosystems.

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Precipitation amount, seasonality and frequency regulate carbon cycling of a semi-arid grassland ecosystem in Inner Mongolia, China: A modeling analysis

Cited by 152 publications

References 46 publications

Asymmetric Responses of Primary Productivity to Altered Precipitation Simulated by Ecosystem Models across Three Longterm Grassland Sites

Asymmetric Responses of Primary Productivity to Altered Precipitation Simulated by Ecosystem Models across Three Longterm Grassland Sites

Joint assimilation of eddy covariance flux measurements and FAPAR products over temperate forests within a process‐oriented biosphere model

Variations of net ecosystem production due to seasonal precipitation differences in a tropical dry forest of northwest Mexico

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