Effect of climate warming on the annual terrestrial net ecosystem CO2 exchange globally in the boreal and temperate regions

Zhiyuan Zhang; Renduo Zhang; Alessandro Cescatti; Georg Wohlfahrt; Nina Buchmann; Juan Zhu; Guanhong Chen; Fernando Moyano; Jukka Pumpanen; Takashi Hirano; Kentaro Takagi; Lutz Merbold

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03386-5

Effect of climate warming on the annual terrestrial net ecosystem CO₂ exchange globally in the boreal and temperate regions

Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 8;7(1):3108. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-03386-5.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
² School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China. zhangrd@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
³ Directorate for Sustainable Resources, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, I-21027, Italy.
⁴ Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestr 15, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria.
⁵ Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitaetsstrasse 2, Zürich, 8092, Switzerland.
⁶ Department of Bioclimatology, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, Göttingen, 37077, Germany.
⁷ Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, 70211, Finland.
⁸ Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan.
⁹ Northern Forestry and Development Office, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Horonobe, 098-2943, Japan.

Abstract

The net ecosystem CO₂ exchange is the result of the imbalance between the assimilation process (gross primary production, GPP) and ecosystem respiration (RE). The aim of this study was to investigate temperature sensitivities of these processes and the effect of climate warming on the annual terrestrial net ecosystem CO₂ exchange globally in the boreal and temperate regions. A database of 403 site-years of ecosystem flux data at 101 sites in the world was collected and analyzed. Temperature sensitivities of rates of RE and GPP were quantified with Q ₁₀, defined as the increase of RE (or GPP) rates with a temperature rise of 10 °C. Results showed that on the annual time scale, the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of GPP (Q _10sG ) was higher than or equivalent to the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of RE (Q _10sR ). Q _10sG was negatively correlated to the mean annual temperature (MAT), whereas Q _10sR was independent of MAT. The analysis of the current temperature sensitivities and net ecosystem production suggested that temperature rise might enhance the CO₂ sink of terrestrial ecosystems both in the boreal and temperate regions. In addition, ecosystems in these regions with different plant functional types should sequester more CO₂ with climate warming.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.