Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011
Recent warming has stimulated the productivity of boreal and Arctic vegetation by reducing temperature limitations. However, several studies have hypothesized that warming may have also increased moisture limitations because of intensified summer drought severity. Establishing the connections betwee...
Published in: | Remote Sensing |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2014
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6021390 https://doaj.org/article/c1864a6c49a74aca939be0c4051e5207 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c1864a6c49a74aca939be0c4051e5207 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c1864a6c49a74aca939be0c4051e5207 2023-05-15T15:14:13+02:00 Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 Jonathan Barichivich Keith R. Briffa Ranga Myneni Gerard van der Schrier Wouter Dorigo Compton J. Tucker Timothy J. Osborn Thomas M. Melvin 2014-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6021390 https://doaj.org/article/c1864a6c49a74aca939be0c4051e5207 EN eng MDPI AG http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/6/2/1390 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs6021390 https://doaj.org/article/c1864a6c49a74aca939be0c4051e5207 Remote Sensing, Vol 6, Iss 2, Pp 1390-1431 (2014) boreal forest snowpack drought soil moisture NDVI3g scPDSI Science Q article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6021390 2022-12-31T09:42:27Z Recent warming has stimulated the productivity of boreal and Arctic vegetation by reducing temperature limitations. However, several studies have hypothesized that warming may have also increased moisture limitations because of intensified summer drought severity. Establishing the connections between warming and drought stress has been difficult because soil moisture observations are scarce. Here we use recently developed gridded datasets of moisture variability to investigate the links between warming and changes in available soil moisture and summer vegetation photosynthetic activity at northern latitudes (>45°N) based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) since 1982. Moisture and temperature exert a significant influence on the interannual variability of summer NDVI over about 29% (mean r2 = 0.29 ± 0.16) and 43% (mean r2 = 0.25 ± 0.12) of the northern vegetated land, respectively. Rapid summer warming since the late 1980s (~0.7 °C) has increased evapotranspiration demand and consequently summer drought severity, but contrary to earlier suggestions it has not changed the dominant climate controls of NDVI over time. Furthermore, changes in snow dynamics (accumulation and melting) appear to be more important than increased evaporative demand in controlling changes in summer soil moisture availability and NDVI in moisture-sensitive regions of the boreal forest. In boreal North America, forest NDVI declines are more consistent with reduced snowpack rather than with temperature-induced increases in evaporative demand as suggested in earlier studies. Moreover, summer NDVI variability over about 28% of the northern vegetated land is not significantly associated with moisture or temperature variability, yet most of this land shows increasing NDVI trends. These results suggest that changes in snow accumulation and melt, together with other possibly non-climatic factors are likely to play a significant role in modulating regional ecosystem responses to the projected warming and increase in ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Remote Sensing 6 2 1390 1431 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
boreal forest snowpack drought soil moisture NDVI3g scPDSI Science Q |
spellingShingle |
boreal forest snowpack drought soil moisture NDVI3g scPDSI Science Q Jonathan Barichivich Keith R. Briffa Ranga Myneni Gerard van der Schrier Wouter Dorigo Compton J. Tucker Timothy J. Osborn Thomas M. Melvin Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 |
topic_facet |
boreal forest snowpack drought soil moisture NDVI3g scPDSI Science Q |
description |
Recent warming has stimulated the productivity of boreal and Arctic vegetation by reducing temperature limitations. However, several studies have hypothesized that warming may have also increased moisture limitations because of intensified summer drought severity. Establishing the connections between warming and drought stress has been difficult because soil moisture observations are scarce. Here we use recently developed gridded datasets of moisture variability to investigate the links between warming and changes in available soil moisture and summer vegetation photosynthetic activity at northern latitudes (>45°N) based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) since 1982. Moisture and temperature exert a significant influence on the interannual variability of summer NDVI over about 29% (mean r2 = 0.29 ± 0.16) and 43% (mean r2 = 0.25 ± 0.12) of the northern vegetated land, respectively. Rapid summer warming since the late 1980s (~0.7 °C) has increased evapotranspiration demand and consequently summer drought severity, but contrary to earlier suggestions it has not changed the dominant climate controls of NDVI over time. Furthermore, changes in snow dynamics (accumulation and melting) appear to be more important than increased evaporative demand in controlling changes in summer soil moisture availability and NDVI in moisture-sensitive regions of the boreal forest. In boreal North America, forest NDVI declines are more consistent with reduced snowpack rather than with temperature-induced increases in evaporative demand as suggested in earlier studies. Moreover, summer NDVI variability over about 28% of the northern vegetated land is not significantly associated with moisture or temperature variability, yet most of this land shows increasing NDVI trends. These results suggest that changes in snow accumulation and melt, together with other possibly non-climatic factors are likely to play a significant role in modulating regional ecosystem responses to the projected warming and increase in ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jonathan Barichivich Keith R. Briffa Ranga Myneni Gerard van der Schrier Wouter Dorigo Compton J. Tucker Timothy J. Osborn Thomas M. Melvin |
author_facet |
Jonathan Barichivich Keith R. Briffa Ranga Myneni Gerard van der Schrier Wouter Dorigo Compton J. Tucker Timothy J. Osborn Thomas M. Melvin |
author_sort |
Jonathan Barichivich |
title |
Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 |
title_short |
Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 |
title_full |
Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 |
title_fullStr |
Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Temperature and Snow-Mediated Moisture Controls of Summer Photosynthetic Activity in Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 |
title_sort |
temperature and snow-mediated moisture controls of summer photosynthetic activity in northern terrestrial ecosystems between 1982 and 2011 |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6021390 https://doaj.org/article/c1864a6c49a74aca939be0c4051e5207 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 6, Iss 2, Pp 1390-1431 (2014) |
op_relation |
http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/6/2/1390 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs6021390 https://doaj.org/article/c1864a6c49a74aca939be0c4051e5207 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6021390 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
1390 |
op_container_end_page |
1431 |
_version_ |
1766344698075545600 |