A unifying principle for global greenness patterns and trends
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Vegetation cover regulates the exchanges of energy, water and carbon between land and atmosphere. Remotely-sensed fractional absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR), a land-surface greenness measure, depends on carbon allocation to foliage while also controlling photon flux for photosynthesis. Here we use an equation with just two globally fitted parameters to describe annual maximum fAPAR as the smaller of a water-limited value transpiring a constant fraction of annual precipitation, and an energy-limited value maximizing annual plant growth. This minimalist description reproduces global greenness patterns and temporal trends in remote-sensing data, comparable to the best-performing dynamic global vegetation models. Widely observed greening is attributed principally to the influence of rising carbon dioxide on the light- and water-use efficiencies of photosynthesis; limited browning regions are attributed to drying. This research provides one key component of ecosystem function as a step towards more robust foundations for new-generation land ecosystem models.
Date Issued
2025-01-10
Date Acceptance
2025-01-02
Citation
Nature Communications Earth and Environment, 2025, 6
ISSN
2662-4435
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications Earth and Environment
Volume
6
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
The Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innova
Commission of the European Communities
Identifier
10.1038/s43247-025-01992-0
Grant Number
PO:35013333(1005109-LEMONTREE)
787203
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 19