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Regionally strong feedbacks between the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere

Abstract

The terrestrial biosphere and atmosphere interact through a series of feedback loops. Variability in terrestrial vegetation growth and phenology can modulate fluxes of water and energy to the atmosphere, and thus affect the climatic conditions that in turn regulate vegetation dynamics. Here we analyse satellite observations of solar-induced fluorescence, precipitation, and radiation using a multivariate statistical technique. We find that biosphere–atmosphere feedbacks are globally widespread and regionally strong: they explain up to 30% of precipitation and surface radiation variance in regions where feedbacks occur. Substantial biosphere–precipitation feedbacks are often found in regions that are transitional between energy and water limitation, such as semi-arid or monsoonal regions. Substantial biosphere–radiation feedbacks are often present in several moderately wet regions and in the Mediterranean, where precipitation and radiation increase vegetation growth. Enhancement of latent and sensible heat transfer from vegetation accompanies this growth, which increases boundary layer height and convection, affecting cloudiness, and consequently incident surface radiation. Enhanced evapotranspiration can increase moist convection, leading to increased precipitation. Earth system models underestimate these precipitation and radiation feedbacks mainly because they underestimate the biosphere response to radiation and water availability. We conclude that biosphere–atmosphere feedbacks cluster in specific climatic regions that help determine the net CO2 balance of the biosphere.

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Figure 1: Atmospheric forcings and biospheric forcings.
Figure 2: Hotspots of terrestrial biosphere–atmosphere feedbacks.
Figure 3: Comparison of observational and Earth system model results.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank G. Salvucci and U. Lall for discussion on the Granger causality, R. Koster for initial discussion of the paper, and J. Joiner for providing GOME-2 data. This project was supported by both a NASA Earth Science and Space Fellowship as well as a DOE GOAmazon grant. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modelling groups (listed in Supplementary Table 1 of this paper) for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP the US Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals.

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J.K.G., A.G.K. and P.G. wrote the main manuscript text. J.K.G., P.G. and S.H.A. prepared figures. S.H.A. processed the CMIP5 simulations. J.K.G., P.G. and A.G.K. designed the study. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Julia K. Green.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Green, J., Konings, A., Alemohammad, S. et al. Regionally strong feedbacks between the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere. Nature Geosci 10, 410–414 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2957

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