Global covariation of carbon turnover times with climate in terrestrial ecosystems (original) (raw)
References
- Friedlingstein, P. et al. Climate-carbon cycle feedback analysis: results from the (CMIP)-M-4 model intercomparison. J. Clim. 19, 3337–3353 (2006)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Ciais, P. et al. in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis (eds Stocker, T. F. et al.) 465–570 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013)
- King, A. W., Post, W. M. & Wullschleger, S. D. The potential response of terrestrial carbon storage to changes in climate and atmospheric CO2 . Clim. Change 35, 199–227 (1997)
Article CAS Google Scholar - Sitch, S. et al. Evaluation of ecosystem dynamics, plant geography and terrestrial carbon cycling in the LPJ dynamic global vegetation model. Glob. Change Biol. 9, 161–185 (2003)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Trumbore, S. Age of soil organic matter and soil respiration: radiocarbon constraints on belowground C dynamics. Ecol. Appl. 10, 399–411 (2000)
Article Google Scholar - Friend, A. D. et al. Carbon residence time dominates uncertainty in terrestrial vegetation responses to future climate and atmospheric CO2 . Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA. 111, 3280–3285 (2014)
Article CAS PubMed ADS Google Scholar - Denman, K. L. et al. in Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis (eds Solomon, S. et al.) 499–587 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007)
- Heimann, M. & Reichstein, M. Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks. Nature 451, 289–292 (2008)
Article CAS ADS PubMed Google Scholar - Anav, A. et al. Evaluating the land and ocean components of the global carbon cycle in the CMIP5 earth system models. J. Clim. 26, 6801–6843 (2013)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Rodhe, H. in Global Biogeochemical Cycles (eds Charlson, R. J., Butcher, S. S., Orians, G. H. & Wolfe, G. V. ) Ch. 4 (Academic, 1992)
Google Scholar - Malhi, Y., Saatchi, S., Girardin, C. & Aragão, L. E. O. C. in Amazonia and Global Change (eds Keller, M., Bustamante, M., Gash, J. & Silva Dias, P. ) 355–372 (American Geophysical Union, 2009)
Book Google Scholar - Trumbore, S. Carbon respired by terrestrial ecosystems — recent progress and challenges. Glob. Change Biol. 12, 141–153 (2006)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Sundquist, E. T. in The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric CO: Natural Variations, Archean to Present (eds Sundquist, E. T. & Broecker, W. S. ) 5–59 (American Geophysical Union, 1985)
Book Google Scholar - Kätterer, T., Reichstein, M., Andren, O. & Lomander, A. Temperature dependence of organic matter decomposition: a critical review using literature data analyzed with different models. Biol. Fertil. Soils 27, 258–262 (1998)
Article Google Scholar - Davidson, E. A. & Janssens, I. A. Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature 440, 165–173 (2006)
Article CAS PubMed ADS Google Scholar - Bond-Lamberty, B. & Thomson, A. Temperature-associated increases in the global soil respiration record. Nature 464, 579–582 (2010)
Article CAS PubMed ADS Google Scholar - Cleveland, C. C. & Townsend, A. R. Nutrient additions to a tropical rain forest drive substantial soil carbon dioxide losses to the atmosphere. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 10316–10321 (2006)
Article CAS ADS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Houghton, R. A. Revised estimates of the annual net flux of carbon to the atmosphere from changes in land use and land management 1850–2000. Tellus B 55, 378–390 (2003)
ADS Google Scholar - Nepstad, D. C. et al. Large-scale impoverishment of Amazonian forests by logging and fire. Nature 398, 505–508 (1999)
Article CAS ADS Google Scholar - Thonicke, K., Venevsky, S., Sitch, S. & Cramer, W. The role of fire disturbance for global vegetation dynamics: coupling fire into a dynamic global vegetation model. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 10, 661–677 (2001)
Article Google Scholar - Krawchuk, M. A. & Moritz, M. A. Constraints on global fire activity vary across a resource gradient. Ecology 92, 121–132 (2011)
Article PubMed Google Scholar - Vetaas, O. R. Micro-site effects of trees and shrubs in dry savannas. J. Veg. Sci. 3, 337–344 (1992)
Article Google Scholar - Joffre, R. & Rambal, S. How tree cover influences the water-balance of Mediterranean rangelands. Ecology 74, 570–582 (1993)
Article Google Scholar - Belsky, A. J. Influences of trees on savanna productivity — tests of shade, nutrients, and tree-grass competition. Ecology 75, 922–932 (1994)
Article Google Scholar - Fahey, T. J. et al. The biogeochemistry of carbon at Hubbard Brook. Biogeochemistry 75, 109–176 (2005)
Article CAS Google Scholar - Bondeau, A. et al. Modelling the role of agriculture for the 20th century global terrestrial carbon balance. Glob. Change Biol. 13, 679–706 (2007)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Todd-Brown, K. E. O. et al. Causes of variation in soil carbon simulations from CMIP5 Earth system models and comparison with observations. Biogeosciences 10, 1717–1736 (2013)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Vonk, J. E. & Gustafsson, O. Permafrost-carbon complexities. Nature Geosci. 6, 675–676 (2013)
Article CAS ADS Google Scholar - Koven, C. et al. On the formation of high-latitude soil carbon stocks: Effects of cryoturbation and insulation by organic matter in a land surface model. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L21501 (2009)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar - Janssens, I. A. et al. Reduction of forest soil respiration in response to nitrogen deposition. Nature Geosci. 3, 315–322 (2010)
Article CAS ADS Google Scholar - Xia, J. Y., Luo, Y. Q., Wang, Y. P. & Hararuk, O. Traceable components of terrestrial carbon storage capacity in biogeochemical models. Glob. Change Biol. 19, 2104–2116 (2013)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Wieder, W. R., Bonan, G. B. & Allison, S. D. Global soil carbon projections are improved by modelling microbial processes. Nature Clim. Change 3, 909–912 (2013)
Article CAS ADS Google Scholar - FAO/IIASA/ISRIC/ISSCAS/JRC. Harmonized World Soil Database v 1. 2http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/External-World-soil-database/HTML/ (2012)
- Jobbágy, E. G. & Jackson, R. B. The vertical distribution of soil organic carbon and its relation to climate and vegetation. Ecol. Appl. 10, 423–436 (2000)
Article Google Scholar - Schrumpf, M., Schulze, E. D., Kaiser, K. & Schumacher, J. How accurately can soil organic carbon stocks and stock changes be quantified by soil inventories? Biogeosciences 8, 1193–1212 (2011)
Article CAS ADS Google Scholar - Webb, R. W., Rosenzweig, C. E. & Levine, E. R. Global Soil Texture and Derived Water-Holding Capacities (Webb et al.) http://daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dsviewer.pl?ds_id=548 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, 2000)
Google Scholar - Zobler, L. A World Soil File for Global Climate Modelling. Report No. 87802 (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 1986)
Google Scholar - Hugelius, G. et al. The Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database: spatially distributed datasets of soil coverage and soil carbon storage in the northern permafrost regions. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 5, 3–13 (2013)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Tarnocai, C. et al. Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 23, GB2023 (2009)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar - Saatchi, S. S. et al. Benchmark map of forest carbon stocks in tropical regions across three continents. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 9899–9904 (2011)
Article CAS ADS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar - Thurner, M. et al. Carbon stock and density of northern boreal and temperate forests. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 23, 297–310 (2014)
Article Google Scholar - Santoro, M. et al. in Proc. ESA Living Planet Symp. SP-722 (CD-ROM, ESA Communication Office, 2013)
- Amthor, J. S. The McCree-de Wit-Penning de Vries-Thornley respiration paradigms: 30 years later. Ann. Bot. (Lond.) 86, 1–20 (2000)
Article CAS Google Scholar - Jung, M. et al. Global patterns of land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide, latent heat, and sensible heat derived from eddy covariance, satellite, and meteorological observations. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 116, G00J07 (2011)
Article Google Scholar - Jung, M., Henkel, K., Herold, M. & Churkina, G. Exploiting synergies of global land cover products for carbon cycle modeling. Remote Sens. Environ. 101, 534–553 (2006)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Kauppi, P. E. New, low estimate for carbon stock in global forest vegetation based on inventory data. Silva Fenn. 37, 451–457 (2003)
Article Google Scholar - Rodhe, H. in Global Biogeochemical Cycles (eds Butcher, S. S., Charlson, R. J., Orians, G. H. & Wolfe, G. V. ) 55–72 (Academic, 1992)
Book Google Scholar - Jenkinson, D. S. in Russell’s Soil Conditions and Plant Growth (ed. Wild, A. ) 564–607 (Longman Scientific and Technical, 1988)
Google Scholar - Schlesinger, W. H. in Soils and Global Change Vol. 25 (eds Lal, R., Kimble, J., Levine, E. & Stewart, B. A. ) 9–25 (CRC/Lewis Publishers, 1995)
Google Scholar - Oades, J. M. The retention of organic-matter in soils. Biogeochemistry 5, 35–70 (1988)
Article CAS Google Scholar - Bird, M. I., Chivas, A. R. & Head, J. A latitudinal gradient in carbon turnover times in forest soils. Nature 381, 143–146 (1996)
Article CAS ADS Google Scholar - Ito, A. A historical meta-analysis of global terrestrial net primary productivity: are estimates converging? Glob. Change Biol. 17, 3161–3175 (2011)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Zaks, D. P. M., Ramankutty, N., Barford, C. C. & Foley, J. A. From Miami to Madison: investigating the relationship between climate and terrestrial net primary production. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 21, GB3004 (2007)
Article ADS CAS Google Scholar - Del Grosso, S. et al. Global potential net primary production predicted from vegetation class, precipitation, and temperature. Ecology 89, 2117–2126 (2008)
Article PubMed Google Scholar - Lieth, H. in Primary Productivity of the Biosphere (eds Lieth, H. & Whittaker, R. H. ) 237–263 (Springer, 1975)
Book Google Scholar - Lieth, H. & Box, E. in Publications in Climatology (ed. Thornthwaite, W. ) 37–46 (C.W. Thornthwaite Associates, 1972)
Google Scholar - Schuur, E. A. G. Productivity and global climate revisited: the sensitivity of tropical forest growth to precipitation. Ecology 84, 1165–1170 (2003)
Article Google Scholar - Dee, D. P. et al. The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137, 553–597 (2011)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Beer, C. et al. Harmonized European long-term climate data for assessing the effect of changing temporal variability on land-atmosphere CO2 fluxes. J. Clim. 27, 4815–4834 (2014)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Weedon, G. P. et al. Creation of the WATCH forcing data and its use to assess global and regional reference crop evaporation over land during the twentieth century. J. Hydrometeorol. 12, 823–848 (2011)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Piani, C. et al. Statistical bias correction of global simulated daily precipitation and temperature for the application of hydrological models. J. Hydrol. (Amst.) 395, 199–215 (2010)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Lindeman, R. H., Merenda, P. F. & Gold, R. Z. Introduction to Bivariate and Multivariate Analysis (1980)
MATH Google Scholar - Grömping, U. Relative importance for linear regression in R: the package relaimpo. J. Stat. Softw. 17, 1–27 (2006)
Article Google Scholar - Zhang, K., Peters, J., Janzing, D. & Schölkopf, B. Kernel-based conditional independence test and application in causal discovery. Computing Res. Repos. (arXiv, 2012)
- Taylor, K. E., Stouffer, R. J. & Meehl, G. A. An Overview of Cmip5 and the Experiment Design. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 93, 485–498 (2012)
Article ADS Google Scholar - Prentice, I. C. et al. in Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis (eds Houghton, J. T. et al.) 183–237 (Cambridge Univ Press, 2001)
- Beer, C. et al. Terrestrial gross carbon dioxide uptake: global distribution and covariation with climate. Science 329, 834–838 (2010)
Article CAS PubMed ADS Google Scholar - Kottek, M., Grieser, J., Beck, C., Rudolf, B. & Rubel, F. World map of the Koppen-Geiger climate classification updated. Meteorol. Z. (Berl.) 15, 259–263 (2006)
Article Google Scholar - Turetsky, M. R. et al. The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems. New Phytol. 196, 49–67 (2012)
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar - Page, S. E., Rieley, J. O. & Banks, C. J. Global and regional importance of the tropical peatland carbon pool. Glob. Change Biol. 17, 798–818 (2011)
Article ADS Google Scholar - DiMiceli, C. M. et al. Annual Global Automated MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields (MOD44B) at 250 m Spatial Resolution for Data Years Beginning Day 65, 2000 - 2010, Collection 5 Percent Tree Coverhttp://glcf.umd.edu/data/vcf/ (University of Maryland, 2011)
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank C. Jones for comments that improved the manuscript. We are grateful to A. Ito, D. Zaks and S. Del Grosso for sharing their NPP data sets with us. We thank S. Schott for figure editing. We acknowledge support by the European Union (FP7) through the projects GEOCARBON (283080), CARBONES (242316) and EMBRACE (283201) and an ERC starting grant QUASOM (ERC-2007-StG-208516).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans Knöll Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany,
Nuno Carvalhais, Matthias Forkel, Myroslava Khomik, Martin Jung, Mirco Migliavacca, Martin Thurner, Ulrich Weber, Bernhard Ahrens, Christian Beer & Markus Reichstein - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente, DCEA, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal,
Nuno Carvalhais - School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada,
Myroslava Khomik - Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK,
Jessica Bellarby - Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK,
Jessica Bellarby - Remote Sensing of Environmental Dynamics Lab, DISAT, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy,
Mirco Migliavacca - Department of Earth System Science, University of California Irvine, Irvine, 92697, California, USA
Mingquan Μu & James T. Randerson - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91109, California, USA
Sassan Saatchi - Gamma Remote Sensing, Worbstrasse 225, 3073 Gümligen, Switzerland,
Maurizio Santoro - Department of Applied Environmental Science and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 8, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden,
Christian Beer - European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Climate Risk Management Unit, Via E. Fermi, 2749, I-21027 Ispra, Italy,
Alessandro Cescatti
Authors
- Nuno Carvalhais
- Matthias Forkel
- Myroslava Khomik
- Jessica Bellarby
- Martin Jung
- Mirco Migliavacca
- Mingquan Μu
- Sassan Saatchi
- Maurizio Santoro
- Martin Thurner
- Ulrich Weber
- Bernhard Ahrens
- Christian Beer
- Alessandro Cescatti
- James T. Randerson
- Markus Reichstein
Contributions
N.C. and M.R. designed the study and are responsible for the integrity of the work as a whole. N.C., M.F. and M. Migliavacca performed analysis and calculations. N.C. and M.R. mainly wrote the manuscript. M.K. and J.B. contributed to interpreting and processing the soil databases. M.T., M.S. and S.S. contributed to the vegetation carbon stocks datasets and interpretation. M.J. contributed to the GPP datasets and interpretation. C.B., M. Mu, M.T. and U.W. contributed to data provision, analysis or data processing. A.C., B.A., M.F., M.J. and J.T.R. contributed to analysis design and interpretation. All authors discussed and commented on the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Correspondence toNuno Carvalhais.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Figure 1 Relative uncertainties in total ecosystem carbon.
Relative uncertainties in total ecosystem carbon stemming from the different data sources considered, reported as the ratio between the interquartile range (difference between the 75th and 25th percentiles) of the different estimates and the mean. The colour scale is binned to the 98th percentile of the spatial distribution of uncertainty (140%). A significant spatial variability was observed in the total ecosystem carbon uncertainties. The highest uncertainties locally and regarding total stocks per biome were observed in tundra (∼38%), followed by tropical savannahs and grasslands (∼30%). Deserts and croplands also showed significant relative uncertainties (both 27%). Overall, we observe a global relative uncertainty of 21%. We note unknown sources of uncertainties related to total carbon stocks, which relate mostly the representativeness of mosses in northern latitudes69 and tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia, although we find a total soil stock of
PgC (95% CI) in this region (−11.5° < latitude < 10° and 90° < longitude < 155°), which borders the upper envelope of the estimates in ref. 70.
Extended Data Figure 2 Local spatial correlations between turnover times of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems and temperature, and precipitation.
Local spatial correlations between τ and temperature (tas; a, c, e), and τ and precipitation (pr; b, d, f) using the 5.5°-by-5.5° moving-window approach. We use two alternative approaches to the Pearson correlation (a, b): the Spearman rank correlation (_r_sp.), a non-parametric measure of association that does not rely on the assumption of normal distribution of residuals (c, d); and the partial correlation (_r_p, e, f), measuring the degree of association between τ and temperature or precipitation, setting precipitation or, respectively, temperature as controlling variables (e, f). On local scales, using partial correlations may result in lost correlation owing to a strong local covariation of temperature and precipitation. Although we see this loss, the associative patterns between τ and both climate variables are generally maintained across the approaches used to calculate the correlations.
Extended Data Figure 3 Strength of association between turnover times of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems and temperature, and precipitation, using different methods.
Strength of association between τ and temperature (tas) and precipitation (pr) for Pearson correlations (a), Spearman correlations (b) and partial correlations (c). Each of these maps (a–c) shows regions where the association of τ is stronger with precipitation (blue) or temperature (red). The fraction of land grid cells with stronger significant correlations to temperature and precipitation are indicated above (for tas) and below (for pr) the colour bar. The colour gradients reflect the respective absolute correlation values. Despite stronger correlations with either temperature or precipitation, these cannot be said to be completely independent from the variable with lower correlation strength. d, Results of a conditional independence test on rejecting the null hypothesis that τ is independent from pr or tas given tas or, respectively, pr (ref. 64), showing that in 53% of the land grid cells, the dependence of τ on temperature or precipitation is not lost when controlling for precipitation or, respectively, temperature.
Extended Data Figure 4 Maximum relative importance of temperature and precipitation in the explained variance of turnover times of carbon.
a, Maximum relative importance of temperature (tas) or precipitation (pr) in the explained variance of τ using the LMG method. b, Relative importance of temperature (tas) or precipitation (pr) in improving the residual sum of squares of local bivariate regressions of τ against tas and pr. c, Normalized slopes of the bivariate regression between τ and precipitation and temperature, using a stepwise regression approach. Also, here the slopes correlate significantly with the strength of the association between the two variables. The fraction of land grid cells with stronger significant correlations to temperature and precipitation are indicated above (for tas) and below (for pr) the colour bar.
Extended Data Figure 5 Moving-window correlation between turnover times of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems and vegetation, and soil carbon stocks.
Moving-window correlation between τ and vegetation stocks (a); and between τ and carbon in soils (b). In general, τ correlates negatively with vegetation (a), indicating shorter turnover times with a higher proportion of carbon in the vegetation. The majority of the patterns are consistent with the overall reduction of residence times in ecosystem carbon given allocation to vegetation pools (shorter lived by comparison with soil carbon pools). Conversely, the significance of soil carbon stocks in explaining the spatial variability of τ is pervasive (b). These results translate the trends in increasing τ with allocation of assimilated carbon to more persistent carbon pools.
Extended Data Figure 6 Pearson correlations between turnover times of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems and tree cover, also controlled for the variability in precipitation.
a, Pearson correlations between τ and tree cover. The prevalence of strong negative correlations suggests that the association could be mediated by precipitation variability. b, Controlling for precipitation still showed many of those negative correlation regions. These negative correlations are most clear in regions where tree cover is not so high or where spatial variability seems higher. c, Map of tree cover percentage from MODIS[71](/articles/nature13731#ref-CR71 "DiMiceli, C. M. et al. Annual Global Automated MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields (MOD44B) at 250 m Spatial Resolution for Data Years Beginning Day 65, 2000 - 2010, Collection 5 Percent Tree Cover http://glcf.umd.edu/data/vcf/
(University of Maryland, 2011)").Extended Data Figure 7 Latitudinal profiles of total soil organic carbon as simulated by CMIP5 models and from the observation-derived data ensembles.
Latitudinal profiles of total soil organic carbon as simulated by CMIP5 models and from data: HWSD[33](/articles/nature13731#ref-CR33 "FAO/IIASA/ISRIC/ISSCAS/JRC. Harmonized World Soil Database v 1. 2 http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/External-World-soil-database/HTML/
(2012)") (1 m depth), NCSCD[38](/articles/nature13731#ref-CR38 "Hugelius, G. et al. The Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database: spatially distributed datasets of soil coverage and soil carbon storage in the northern permafrost regions. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 5, 3–13 (2013)"),[39](/articles/nature13731#ref-CR39 "Tarnocai, C. et al. Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 23, GB2023 (2009)") (1 m depth) and this study (MPI, to full soil depth).Extended Data Table 1 Estimates of total ecosystem carbon for the globe and discriminated per biome
Extended Data Table 2 Estimates of total ecosystem carbon turnover times, stocks and fluxes of carbon for each of the CMIP5 models and correlations with data
Supplementary information
PowerPoint slides
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Carvalhais, N., Forkel, M., Khomik, M. et al. Global covariation of carbon turnover times with climate in terrestrial ecosystems.Nature 514, 213–217 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13731
- Received: 09 November 2013
- Accepted: 30 July 2014
- Published: 24 September 2014
- Issue date: 09 October 2014
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13731