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Drought impacts on terrestrial primary production underestimated by satellite monitoring
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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soilm_global_manuscript_v5.2_SUBMISSION3_NGS-2018-06-01322A[1000].docx | Accepted version | 115.31 kB | Microsoft Word | View/Open |
Title: | Drought impacts on terrestrial primary production underestimated by satellite monitoring |
Authors: | Prentice, I Stocker, B Zscheischler, J Keenan, T Seneviratne, S Peñuelas, J |
Item Type: | Journal Article |
Abstract: | Satellite retrievals of information about the Earth’s surface are widely used to monitor global terrestrial photosynthesis and primary production and to examine the ecological impacts of droughts. Methods for estimating photosynthesis from space commonly combine information on vegetation greenness, incoming radiation, temperature, and atmospheric demand for water (vapour-pressure deficit), but do not account for the direct effects of low soil moisture. They instead rely on vapour-pressure deficit as a proxy for dryness, despite widespread evidence that soil moisture deficits have a direct impact on vegetation, independent of vapour-pressure deficit. Here, we use a globally distributed measurement network to assess the effect of soil moisture on photosynthesis, and identify a common bias in an ensemble of satellite-based estimates of photosynthesis that is governed by the magnitude of soil moisture effects on photosynthetic light-use efficiency. We develop methods to account for the influence of soil moisture and estimate that soil moisture effects reduce global annual photosynthesis by ~15%, increase interannual variability by more than 100% across 25% of the global vegetated land surface, and amplify the impacts of extreme events on primary production. These results demonstrate the importance of soil moisture effects for monitoring carbon-cycle variability and drought impacts on vegetation productivity from space. |
Issue Date: | 1-Apr-2019 |
Date of Acceptance: | 31-Jan-2019 |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/67327 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41561-019-0318-6 |
ISSN: | 1752-0894 |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Start Page: | 264 |
End Page: | 270 |
Journal / Book Title: | Nature Geoscience |
Volume: | 12 |
Issue: | 4 |
Sponsor/Funder: | AXA Research Fund |
Funder's Grant Number: | AXA Chair Programme in Biosphere and Climate Impacts |
Keywords: | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geosciences, Multidisciplinary Geology GROSS PRIMARY PRODUCTION NET PRIMARY PRODUCTION ATMOSPHERIC DEMAND USE EFFICIENCY CLIMATE-CHANGE CARBON UPTAKE WATER-STRESS PHOTOSYNTHESIS RADIATION FOREST Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
Publication Status: | Published |
Online Publication Date: | 2019-03-11 |
Appears in Collections: | Department of Life Sciences Faculty of Natural Sciences |