Net primary production and carbon stocks in differently managed grasslands: simulation of site-specific sensitivity to an increase in atmospheric CO2 and to climate change

2000 ◽  
Vol 134 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 207-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Riedo ◽  
Dimitrios Gyalistras ◽  
Jürg Fuhrer
2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. E. Popova ◽  
A. Yool ◽  
Y. Aksenov ◽  
A. C. Coward ◽  
T. R. Anderson

Abstract. The Arctic Ocean is a region that is particularly vulnerable to the impact of ocean acidification driven by rising atmospheric CO2, with potentially negative consequences for calcifying organisms such as coccolithophorids and foraminiferans. In this study, we use an ocean-only general circulation model, with embedded biogeochemistry and a comprehensive description of the ocean carbon cycle, to study the response of pH and saturation states of calcite and aragonite to rising atmospheric pCO2 and changing climate in the Arctic Ocean. Particular attention is paid to the strong regional variability within the Arctic, and, for comparison, simulation results are contrasted with those for the global ocean. Simulations were run to year 2099 using the RCP8.5 (an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) scenario with the highest concentrations of atmospheric CO2). The separate impacts of the direct increase in atmospheric CO2 and indirect effects via impact of climate change (changing temperature, stratification, primary production and freshwater fluxes) were examined by undertaking two simulations, one with the full system and the other in which atmospheric CO2 was prevented from increasing beyond its preindustrial level (year 1860). Results indicate that the impact of climate change, and spatial heterogeneity thereof, plays a strong role in the declines in pH and carbonate saturation (Ω) seen in the Arctic. The central Arctic, Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Baffin Bay show greatest rates of acidification and Ω decline as a result of melting sea ice. In contrast, areas affected by Atlantic inflow including the Greenland Sea and outer shelves of the Barents, Kara and Laptev seas, had minimal decreases in pH and Ω because diminishing ice cover led to greater vertical mixing and primary production. As a consequence, the projected onset of undersaturation in respect to aragonite is highly variable regionally within the Arctic, occurring during the decade of 2000–2010 in the Siberian shelves and Canadian Arctic Archipelago, but as late as the 2080s in the Barents and Norwegian seas. We conclude that, for future projections of acidification and carbonate saturation state in the Arctic, regional variability is significant and needs to be adequately resolved, with particular emphasis on reliable projections of the rates of retreat of the sea ice, which are a major source of uncertainty.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi Eskandari Dameneh ◽  
Moslem Borji ◽  
Hassan Khosravi ◽  
Ali Salajeghe

Abstract. Persistence of widespread degradation in arid and semi-arid region of Iran necessitates using of monitoring and evaluation systems with appropriate accuracy to determine the degradation process and adoption of early warning systems; because after transition from some thresholds, effective reversible function of ecosystems will not be very easy. This paper tries to monitor the degradation and desertification trends in three land uses including range, forest and desert lands affected by climate change in Tehran province for 2000s and 2030s. For assessing climate changes of Mehrabad synoptic stations the data of two emission scenarios including A2 and B2 were used using statistical downscaling techniques and data generated by SDSM model. The index of net primary production resulting from MODIS satellite images was employed as an indicator of destruction from 2001 to 2010. The results showed that temperature is the most effective driver force which alters the net primary production in rangeland, forest and desert ecosystems of Tehran province. On the basis of monitoring findings under real conditions, in the 2000s, over 60 % of rangelands and 80 % of the forests have been below the average production in the province. On the other hand, the long-term average changes of NPP in rangeland and forests indicated the presence of relatively large areas of these land uses with production rate lower than the desert. The results also showed that, assuming the existence of circumstances of each emission scenarios, the desertification status will not improve significantly in the rangelands and forests of Tehran province.


Ecosystems ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 760-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Campioli ◽  
Anders Michelsen ◽  
Andreas Demey ◽  
Annemie Vermeulen ◽  
Roeland Samson ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Zahra Azhdari ◽  
Elham Rafeie Sardooi ◽  
Ommolbanin Bazrafshan ◽  
Hossein Zamani ◽  
Vijay P. Singh ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Han Dolman

The chapter first shows carbon dioxide variability over long geological timescales. The current stocks and fluxes of carbon are then given, for the whole planet and for the atmosphere, ocean and land separately. The main flows of carbon in the ocean, through the biological pump (via uptake through photosynthesis) and the physical pump (via involving chemical transformation uptake in water and production of carbonate), and on land, through photosynthesis (Gross Primary Production) and respiration leading to Net Primary Production, Net Ecosystem Production and Net Biome Production and through the storage of carbon in biomass, are described. Next, carbon interactions during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum and glacial–interglacial transitions, thought to involve changes in ocean circulation and upwelling, are examined. The key changes from anthropogenic perturbation of the natural carbon cycle are shown to be due to fossil fuel burning and land-use change (deforestation). The effects of the carbon–climate feedback on temperature and carbon stocks are also shown.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1091-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. M. Munir ◽  
M. Perkins ◽  
E. Kaing ◽  
M. Strack

Abstract. Midlatitude treed bogs represent significant carbon (C) stocks and are highly sensitive to global climate change. In a dry continental treed bog, we compared three sites: control, recent (1–3 years; experimental) and older drained (10–13 years), with water levels at 38, 74 and 120 cm below the surface, respectively. At each site we measured carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and estimated tree root respiration (Rr; across hummock–hollow microtopography of the forest floor) and net primary production (NPP) of trees during the growing seasons (May to October) of 2011–2013. The CO2–C balance was calculated by adding the net CO2 exchange of the forest floor (NEff-Rr) to the NPP of the trees. From cooler and wetter 2011 to the driest and the warmest 2013, the control site was a CO2–C sink of 92, 70 and 76 g m−2, the experimental site was a CO2–C source of 14, 57 and 135 g m−2, and the drained site was a progressively smaller source of 26, 23 and 13 g CO2–C m−2. The short-term drainage at the experimental site resulted in small changes in vegetation coverage and large net CO2 emissions at the microforms. In contrast, the longer-term drainage and deeper water level at the drained site resulted in the replacement of mosses with vascular plants (shrubs) on the hummocks and lichen in the hollows leading to the highest CO2 uptake at the drained hummocks and significant losses in the hollows. The tree NPP (including above- and below-ground growth and litter fall) in 2011 and 2012 was significantly higher at the drained site (92 and 83 g C m−2) than at the experimental (58 and 55 g C m−2) and control (52 and 46 g C m−2) sites. We also quantified the impact of climatic warming at all water table treatments by equipping additional plots with open-top chambers (OTCs) that caused a passive warming on average of ~ 1 °C and differential air warming of ~ 6 °C at midday full sun over the study years. Warming significantly enhanced shrub growth and the CO2 sink function of the drained hummocks (exceeding the cumulative respiration losses in hollows induced by the lowered water level × warming). There was an interaction of water level with warming across hummocks that resulted in the largest net CO2 uptake at the warmed drained hummocks. Thus in 2013, the warming treatment enhanced the sink function of the control site by 13 g m−2, reduced the source function of the experimental by 10 g m−2 and significantly enhanced the sink function of the drained site by 73 g m−2. Therefore, drying and warming in continental bogs is expected to initially accelerate CO2–C losses via ecosystem respiration, but persistent drought and warming is expected to restore the peatland's original CO2–C sink function as a result of the shifts in vegetation composition and productivity between the microforms and increased NPP of trees over time.


2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustapha El Maayar ◽  
Navin Ramankutty ◽  
Christopher J. Kucharik

Abstract Terrestrial ecosystem models are built, among several reasons, to explore how the Earth’s biosphere responds to climate change and to the projected continual increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration. Many of these models adopt the Farquhar et al. approach, in which leaf carbon assimilation of C3 plants is regulated by two limitations depending on the rate of Rubisco activity and ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate regeneration (RuBP). This approach was expanded upon by others to include a third limitation that expresses the occurrence, in some plant species, of a photosynthetic downregulation under high concentrations of ambient CO2. Several ecosystem models, however, constrain leaf photosynthesis using only two limitations according to the original formulation of Farquhar et al. and thus neglect the limitation that represents the downregulation of photosynthesis under elevated atmospheric CO2. In this study, the authors first reviewed the effect of elevated CO2 on photosynthesis of C3 plants, which illustrated that short-term observations are likely to considerably underestimate the number of plant species that exhibit a photosynthetic downregulation. Several recent long-term field observations have shown that such downregulation starts to be effective only after several seasons/years of plant exposure to elevated CO2. Second, an ecosystem model was used to illustrate that neglecting the photosynthetic downregulation may significantly bias predictions of net primary production of the middle and high latitudes under high atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Based on both review of field observations and results of simulations, the authors conclude that a more appropriate representation of plant physiology and choice of plant functional types may be required in ecosystem models in order to accurately simulate plant responses to changing environmental conditions.


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