scholarly journals Tropical land carbon cycle responses to 2015/16 El Niño as recorded by atmospheric greenhouse gas and remote sensing data

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuel Gloor ◽  
Chris Wilson ◽  
Martyn P. Chipperfield ◽  
Frederic Chevallier ◽  
Wolfgang Buermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
East Asia ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Carbon Flux ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Minor Amount ◽  
Tropical Africa ◽  
Tropical Vegetation ◽  
Carbon Release ◽  
The Impact

The outstanding tropical land climate characteristic over the past decades is rapid warming, with no significant large-scale precipitation trends. This warming is expected to continue but the effects on tropical vegetation are unknown. El Niño-related heat peaks may provide a test bed for a future hotter world. Here we analyse tropical land carbon cycle responses to the 2015/16 El Niño heat and drought anomalies using an atmospheric transport inversion. Based on the global atmospheric CO 2 and fossil fuel emission records, we find no obvious signs of anomalously large carbon release compared with earlier El Niño events, suggesting resilience of tropical vegetation. We find roughly equal net carbon release anomalies from Amazonia and tropical Africa, approximately 0.5 PgC each, and smaller carbon release anomalies from tropical East Asia and southern Africa. Atmospheric CO anomalies reveal substantial fire carbon release from tropical East Asia peaking in October 2015 while fires contribute only a minor amount to the Amazonian carbon flux anomaly. Anomalously large Amazonian carbon flux release is consistent with downregulation of primary productivity during peak negative near-surface water anomaly (October 2015 to March 2016) as diagnosed by solar-induced fluorescence. Finally, we find an unexpected anomalous positive flux to the atmosphere from tropical Africa early in 2016, coincident with substantial CO release. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications’.

scholarly journals Examining the sensitivity of the terrestrial carbon cycle to the expression of El Niño

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Teckentrup ◽  
Martin G. De Kauwe ◽  
Andrew J. Pitman ◽  
Benjamin Smith
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño Events ◽  
Ep El Niño ◽  
The Impact ◽  
El Nino Events

Abstract. The El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influences the global climate and the variability in the terrestrial carbon cycle on interannual timescales. Two different expressions of El Niño have recently been identified: (i) Central–Pacific (CP) and (ii) Eastern–Pacific (EP). Both types of El Nino are characterised by above average sea surface temperature anomalies in the respective locations. Studies exploring the impact of these expressions of El Niño on the carbon cycle have identified changes in the amplitude of the concentration of interannual atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) variability, as well as different lags in terrestrial CO2 release to the atmosphere following increased tropical near surface air temperature. We employ the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ–GUESS within a synthetic experimental framework to examine the sensitivity and potential long term impacts of these two expressions of El Niño on the terrestrial carbon cycle. We manipulated the occurrence of CP and EP events in two climate reanalysis datasets during the later half of the 20th and early 21st century by replacing all EP with CP and separately all CP with EP El Niño events. We found that the different expressions of El Niño affect interannual variability in the terrestrial carbon cycle. However, the effect on longer timescales was negligible for both climate reanalysis datasets. We conclude that capturing any future trends in the relative frequency of CP and EP El Niño events may not be critical for robust simulations of the terrestrial carbon cycle.

scholarly journals The role of satellite observations in understanding the impact of El Niño on the carbon cycle: current capabilities and future opportunities

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul I. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
Climate Variation ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Impact

The 2015/2016 El Niño was the first major climate variation when there were a range of satellite observations that simultaneously observed land, ocean and atmospheric properties associated with the carbon cycle. These data are beginning to provide new insights into the varied responses of land ecosystems to El Niño, but we are far from fully exploiting the information embodied by these data. Here, we briefly review the atmospheric and terrestrial satellite data that are available to study the carbon cycle. We also outline recommendations for future research, particularly the closer integration of satellite data with forest biometric datasets that provide detailed information about carbon dynamics on a range of timescales. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications’.

scholarly journals The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on global photosynthesis using satellite remote sensing

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangzhong Luo ◽  
Trevor F. Keenan ◽  
Joshua B. Fisher ◽  
Juan-Carlos Jiménez-Muñoz ◽  
Jing M. Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Prognostic Models ◽  
Positive Anomaly ◽  
The Impact

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation exerts a large influence on global climate regimes and on the global carbon cycle. Although El Niño is known to be associated with a reduction of the global total land carbon sink, results based on prognostic models or measurements disagree over the relative contribution of photosynthesis to the reduced sink. Here, we provide an independent remote sensing-based analysis on the impact of the 2015–2016 El Niño on global photosynthesis using six global satellite-based photosynthesis products and a global solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) dataset. An ensemble of satellite-based photosynthesis products showed a negative anomaly of −0.7 ± 1.2 PgC in 2015, but a slight positive anomaly of 0.05 ± 0.89 PgC in 2016, which when combined with observations of the growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations suggests that the reduction of the land residual sink was likely dominated by photosynthesis in 2015 but by respiration in 2016. The six satellite-based products unanimously identified a major photosynthesis reduction of −1.1 ± 0.52 PgC from savannahs in 2015 and 2016, followed by a highly uncertain reduction of −0.22 ± 0.98 PgC from rainforests. Vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere enhanced photosynthesis before and after the peak El Niño, especially in grasslands (0.33 ± 0.13 PgC). The patterns of satellite-based photosynthesis ensemble mean were corroborated by SIF, except in rainforests and South America, where the anomalies of satellite-based photosynthesis products also diverged the most. We found the inter-model variation of photosynthesis estimates was strongly related to the discrepancy between moisture forcings for models. These results highlight the importance of considering multiple photosynthesis proxies when assessing responses to climatic anomalies. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications'.

scholarly journals Examining the sensitivity of the terrestrial carbon cycle to the expression of El Niño

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 2181-2203
Author(s):  
Lina Teckentrup ◽  
Martin G. De Kauwe ◽  
Andrew J. Pitman ◽  
Benjamin Smith
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño Events ◽  
Ep El Niño ◽  
The Impact ◽  
El Nino Events

Abstract. The El Niño‐-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influences the global climate and the variability in the terrestrial carbon cycle on interannual timescales. Two different expressions of El Niño have recently been identified: (i) central Pacific (CP) and (ii) eastern Pacific (EP). Both types of El Niño are characterised by above-average sea surface temperature anomalies at the respective locations. Studies exploring the impact of these expressions of El Niño on the carbon cycle have identified changes in the amplitude of the concentration of interannual atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) variability following increased tropical near-surface air temperature and decreased precipitation. We employ the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS (Lund–Potsdam–Jena General Ecosystem Simulator) within a synthetic experimental framework to examine the sensitivity and potential long-term impacts of these two expressions of El Niño on the terrestrial carbon cycle. We manipulated the occurrence of CP and EP events in two climate reanalysis datasets during the latter half of the 20th and early 21st century by replacing all EP with CP and separately all CP with EP El Niño events. We found that the different expressions of El Niño affect interannual variability in the terrestrial carbon cycle. However, the effect on longer timescales was small for both climate reanalysis datasets. We conclude that capturing any future trends in the relative frequency of CP and EP El Niño events may not be critical for robust simulations of the terrestrial carbon cycle.

scholarly journals Impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial carbon cycle constrained by bottom-up and top-down approaches

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Bastos ◽  
Pierre Friedlingstein ◽  
Stephen Sitch ◽  
Chi Chen ◽  
Arnaud Mialon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon Cycle ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
The Impact

Evaluating the response of the land carbon sink to the anomalies in temperature and drought imposed by El Niño events provides insights into the present-day carbon cycle and its climate-driven variability. It is also a necessary step to build confidence in terrestrial ecosystems models' response to the warming and drying stresses expected in the future over many continents, and particularly in the tropics. Here we present an in-depth analysis of the response of the terrestrial carbon cycle to the 2015/2016 El Niño that imposed extreme warming and dry conditions in the tropics and other sensitive regions. First, we provide a synthesis of the spatio-temporal evolution of anomalies in net land–atmosphere CO 2 fluxes estimated by two in situ measurements based on atmospheric inversions and 16 land-surface models (LSMs) from TRENDYv6. Simulated changes in ecosystem productivity, decomposition rates and fire emissions are also investigated. Inversions and LSMs generally agree on the decrease and subsequent recovery of the land sink in response to the onset, peak and demise of El Niño conditions and point to the decreased strength of the land carbon sink: by 0.4–0.7 PgC yr −1 (inversions) and by 1.0 PgC yr −1 (LSMs) during 2015/2016. LSM simulations indicate that a decrease in productivity, rather than increase in respiration, dominated the net biome productivity anomalies in response to ENSO throughout the tropics, mainly associated with prolonged drought conditions. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications’.

scholarly journals Comment on “Contrasting carbon cycle responses of the tropical continents to the 2015–2016 El Niño”

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 362 (6418) ◽  
pp. eaar5432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Chevallier
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Carbon Flux ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Carbon Exchange ◽  
Transport Models ◽  
Error Budget ◽  
Exchange Processes

Liu et al. (Research Articles, 13 October 2017) inferred carbon flux anomalies in tropical continents with enough confidence to constrain the driving carbon-exchange processes. I show that they underestimated their error budget and that more effort must be invested in the satellite concentration retrievals and in the atmospheric transport models before such precision can be achieved.

scholarly journals Intraseasonal Variability of the East Asia-Pacific Teleconnection and Its Impacts on Multiple Tropical Cyclone Genesis Over the Western North Pacific

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Lin ◽  
Lan Wang ◽  
Jianyun Gao ◽  
Xiaoxiao Chen ◽  
Wei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
El Niño ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Western North Pacific ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Intraseasonal Variability ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
The Impact

A daily East Asia–Pacific teleconnection (EAP) index was constructed to investigate the impact of the intraseasonal variability (ISV) of this index on the genesis of multiple tropical cyclones (MTC) in boreal summer over the western North Pacific (WNP). The result indicates that the EAP index has dominant intraseasonal periods of 10–20 days, 20–40 days and 50–70 days, respectively. The ISV of the EAP during 1979–2019 can be classified into three types, a single-period-domination type (37%), a multiple period coexistence type (24%) and a transition type (39%). It is found that during El Niño (La Niña) summers, the ISV of the EAP is dominated by a higher-frequency (lower-frequency) oscillation with a period of around 20–30 (50–70) days. The distinctive ISV characteristics during the different ENSO years were accompanied with different dynamic and thermodynamic background conditions over the WNP and the South China Sea, which modulated the frequency and location of MTC genesis. By examining the relative contributions of individual environmental variables of the Genesis Potential Index, we found that the low-level absolute vorticity and mid-level relative humidity are two important environmental factors modulating MTC genesis. However, the relative role of these variables tends to change with the EAP ISV phase. The environmental condition over the SCS appears less influenced by ENSO. A more southern location of MTC genesis during El Niño is attributed to the change of the environmental humidity.

El Nino threat will cloud ASEAN economic outlook

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Weather Phenomenon ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Climatic Pattern

Subject Outlook for the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon on South-east Asia. Significance The El Nino Southern Oscillation climatic pattern spreading across South-east Asia is expected to be the most severe to affect the region since 1997-98. Building since the middle of this year, the 2015-16 El Nino will bring flooding and drought that will disrupt agricultural production, exports and water-dependent industries, and trigger labour migrations to cities. Impacts Smaller harvests will constrain potential export earnings from agricultural shipments. Economic growth will suffer into 2016, with Indonesia and the Philippines probably affected the most. Flooding will probably increase the incidence of water-borne and crop diseases.

scholarly journals History of El Niño impacts on the global carbon cycle 1957–2017: a quantification from atmospheric CO 2 data

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170303 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rödenbeck ◽  
S. Zaehle ◽  
R. Keeling ◽  
M. Heimann
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Net Ecosystem Exchange ◽  
Mixing Ratios ◽  
The Impact

Interannual variations in the large-scale net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO 2 between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere were estimated for 1957–2017 from sustained measurements of atmospheric CO 2 mixing ratios. As the observations are sparse in the early decades, available records were combined into a ‘quasi-homogeneous’ dataset based on similarity in their signals, to minimize spurious variations from beginning or ending data records. During El Niño events, CO 2 is anomalously released from the tropical band, and a few months later also in the northern extratropical band. This behaviour can approximately be represented by a linear relationship of the NEE anomalies and local air temperature anomalies, with sensitivity coefficients depending on geographical location and season. The apparent climate sensitivity of global total NEE against variations in pan-tropically averaged annual air temperature slowly changed over time during the 1957–2017 period, first increasing (though less strongly than in previous studies) but then decreasing again. However, only part of this change can be attributed to actual changes in local physiological or ecosystem processes, the rest probably arising from shifts in the geographical area of dominating temperature variations. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications’.

Response of the terrestrial carbon cycle to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Tellus B ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haifeng Qian ◽  
Renu Joseph ◽  
Ning Zeng
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon Cycle
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