Evidence for a weakening relationship between interannual temperature variability and northern vegetation activity

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Piao, Shilong, Nan, Huijuan, Huntingford, Chris, Ciais, Philippe, Friedlingstein, Pierre, Sitch, Stephen, Peng, Shushi, Ahlström, Anders, Canadell, Josep, Cong, Nan, Levis, Sam, Levy, Peter, Liu, Lingli, Lomas, Mark, Mao, Jiafu, M, Myneni, Ranga, Peylin, Philippe, Poulter, Ben, Shi, Xiaoying, Yin, Guodong, Viovy, Nicolas, Wang, Tao, Wang, Xuhui, Zaehle, Soenke, Zeng, Ning, Zeng, Zhenzhong, Chen, Anping
• Other Authors: Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University Beijing, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Wallingford (CEH), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), ICOS-ATC (ICOS-ATC), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences Exeter, Skane University Hospital Lund, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Canberra (CSIRO), Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (CAS), National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder (NCAR), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, University of Sheffield Sheffield, Environmental Sciences Division Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge (ORNL), UT-Battelle, LLC-UT-Battelle, LLC, Boston University Boston (BU), Modélisation des Surfaces et Interfaces Continentales (MOSAIC), Montana State University (MSU), Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Institute of Atmospheric Physics Beijing (IAP), National Engineering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture Beijing (NERCITA), Princeton University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: [SDV.EE.BIO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Bioclimatology; Arctic; Tundra
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02927916; https://hal.science/hal-02927916/document; https://hal.science/hal-02927916/file/ncomms6018.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6018

International audience Satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a proxy of vegetation productivity, is known to be correlated with temperature in northern ecosystems. This relationship, however, may change over time following alternations in other environmental factors. Here we show that above 30°N, the strength of the relationship between the interannual variability of growing season NDVI and temperature (partial correlation coefficient R NDVI-GT) declined substantially between 1982 and 2011. This decrease in R NDVI-GT is mainly observed in temperate and arctic ecosystems, and is also partly reproduced by process-based ecosystem model results. In the temperate ecosystem, the decrease in R NDVI-GT coincides with an increase in drought. In the arctic ecosystem, it may be related to a nonlinear response of photosynthesis to temperature, increase of hot extreme days and shrub expansion over grass-dominated tundra. Our results caution the use of results from interannual time scales to constrain the decadal response of plants to ongoing warming.