A. J. Dolman

The pilot phase of the Global Soil Wetness Project

Abstract The Global Soil Wetness Project (GSWP) is an ongoing land surface modeling activity of the International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP), a part of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment. The pilot phase of GSWP deals with the production of a two-year global dataset of soil moisture, temperature, runoff, and surface fluxes by integrating uncoupled land surface schemes (LSSs) using externally specified surface forcings from observations and standardized soil and vegetation distributions. Approximately one dozen participating LSS groups in five nations have taken the common ISLSCP forcing data to drive their state-of-the-art models over the 1987–88 period to generate global datasets. Many of the LSS groups have performed specific sensitivity studies, which are intended to evaluate the impact of uncertainties in model parameters and forcing fields on simulation of the surface water and energy balances. A validation effort exists to compare the global products to other forms...

Asymmetric effects of daytime and night-time warming on Northern Hemisphere vegetation

Temperature data over the past five decades show faster warming of the global land surface during the night than during the day. This asymmetric warming is expected to affect carbon assimilation and consumption in plants, because photosynthesis in most plants occurs during daytime and is more sensitive to the maximum daily temperature, Tmax, whereas plant respiration occurs throughout the day and is therefore influenced by both Tmax and the minimum daily temperature, Tmin. Most studies of the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate warming, however, ignore this asymmetric forcing effect on vegetation growth and carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes. Here we analyse the interannual covariations of the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, an indicator of vegetation greenness) with Tmax and Tmin over the Northern Hemisphere. After removing the correlation between Tmax and Tmin, we find that the partial correlation between Tmax and NDVI is positive in most wet and cool ecosystems over boreal regions, but negative in dry temperate regions. In contrast, the partial correlation between Tmin and NDVI is negative in boreal regions, and exhibits a more complex behaviour in dry temperate regions. We detect similar patterns in terrestrial net CO2 exchange maps obtained from a global atmospheric inversion model. Additional analysis of the long-term atmospheric CO2 concentration record of the station Point Barrow in Alaska suggests that the peak-to-peak amplitude of CO2 increased by 23u2009±u200911% for a +1u2009°C anomaly in Tmax from May to September over lands north of 51°u2009N, but decreased by 28u2009±u200914% for a +1u2009°C anomaly in Tmin. These lines of evidence suggest that asymmetric diurnal warming, a process that is currently not taken into account in many global carbon cycle models, leads to a divergent response of Northern Hemisphere vegetation growth and carbon sequestration to rising temperatures.

Changing Climate and Overgrazing Are Decimating Mongolian Steppes

Satellite observations identify the Mongolian steppes as a hotspot of global biomass reduction, the extent of which is comparable with tropical rainforest deforestation. To conserve or restore these grasslands, the relative contributions of climate and human activities to degradation need to be understood. Here we use a recently developed 21-year (1988–2008) record of satellite based vegetation optical depth (VOD, a proxy for vegetation water content and aboveground biomass), to show that nearly all steppe grasslands in Mongolia experienced significant decreases in VOD. Approximately 60% of the VOD declines can be directly explained by variations in rainfall and surface temperature. After removing these climate induced influences, a significant decreasing trend still persists in the VOD residuals across regions of Mongolia. Correlations in spatial patterns and temporal trends suggest that a marked increase in goat density with associated grazing pressures and wild fires are the most likely non-climatic factors behind grassland degradation.

The uncertain climate footprint of wetlands under human pressure

Significance Wetlands are unique ecosystems because they are in general sinks for carbon dioxide and sources of methane. Their climate footprint therefore depends on the relative sign and magnitude of the land–atmosphere exchange of these two major greenhouse gases. This work presents a synthesis of simultaneous measurements of carbon dioxide and methane fluxes to assess the radiative forcing of natural wetlands converted to agricultural or forested land. The net climate impact of wetlands is strongly dependent on whether they are natural or managed. Here we show that the conversion of natural wetlands produces a significant increase of the atmospheric radiative forcing. The findings suggest that management plans for these complex ecosystems should carefully account for the potential biogeochemical effects on climate. Significant climate risks are associated with a positive carbon–temperature feedback in northern latitude carbon-rich ecosystems, making an accurate analysis of human impacts on the net greenhouse gas balance of wetlands a priority. Here, we provide a coherent assessment of the climate footprint of a network of wetland sites based on simultaneous and quasi-continuous ecosystem observations of CO2 and CH4 fluxes. Experimental areas are located both in natural and in managed wetlands and cover a wide range of climatic regions, ecosystem types, and management practices. Based on direct observations we predict that sustained CH4 emissions in natural ecosystems are in the long term (i.e., several centuries) typically offset by CO2 uptake, although with large spatiotemporal variability. Using a space-for-time analogy across ecological and climatic gradients, we represent the chronosequence from natural to managed conditions to quantify the “cost” of CH4 emissions for the benefit of net carbon sequestration. With a sustained pulse–response radiative forcing model, we found a significant increase in atmospheric forcing due to land management, in particular for wetland converted to cropland. Our results quantify the role of human activities on the climate footprint of northern wetlands and call for development of active mitigation strategies for managed wetlands and new guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) accounting for both sustained CH4 emissions and cumulative CO2 exchange.

NOCTURNAL ACCUMULATION OF CO2 UNDERNEATH A TROPICAL FOREST CANOPY ALONG A TOPOGRAPHICAL GRADIENT

Flux measurements of carbon dioxide and water vapor above tropical rain forests are often difficult to interpret because the terrain is usually complex. This complexity induces heterogeneity in the surface but also affects lateral movement of carbon dioxide (CO2) not readily detected by the eddy covariance systems. This study describes such variability using measurements of CO2 along vertical profiles and along a toposequence in a tropical rain forest near Manaus, Brazil. Seasonal and diurnal variation was recorded, with atmospheric CO2 concentration maxima around dawn, generally higher CO2 build-up in the dry season and stronger daytime CO2 drawdown in the wet season. This variation was reflected all along the toposequence, but the slope and valley bottom accumulated clearly more CO2 than the plateaus, depending on atmospheric stability. Particularly during stable nights, accumulation was along lines of equal altitude, suggesting that large amounts of CO2 are stored in the valleys of the landscape. Flushing of this store only occurs during mid-morning, when stored CO2 may well be partly transported back to the plateaus. It is clear that, for proper interpretation of tower fluxes in such complex and actively respiring terrain, the horizontal variability of storage needs to be taken into account not only during the night but also during the mornings.

Evaluating 4 years of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) over Europe using IASI satellite observations and LOTOS-EUROS model results

Monitoring ammonia (NH3) concentrations on a global to regional scale is a challenge. Due to the limited availability of reliable ground-based measurements, the determination of NH3 distributions generally relies on model calculations. Novel remotely sensed NH3burdens provide valuable insights to complement traditional assessments for clear-sky conditions. This paper presents a first quantitative comparison between Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite observations and LOTOS-EUROS model results over Europe and Western Russia. A methodology to account for the variable retrieval sensitivity of the measurements is described. Four years of data (2008-2011) highlight three main agricultural hot spot areas in Europe: the Po Valley, the continental part of Northwestern Europe, and the Ebro Valley. The spatial comparison reveals a good overall agreement of the NH3 distributions not only in these source regions but also over remote areas and over sea when transport is observed. On average, the measured columns exceed the modeled ones, except for a few cases. Large discrepancies over several industrial areas in Eastern Europe and Russia point to underestimated emissions in the underlying inventories. The temporal analysis over the three hot spot areas reveals that the seasonality is well captured by the model when the lower sensitivity of the satellite measurements in the colder months is taken into account. Comparison of the daily time series indicates possible misrepresentations of the timing and magnitude of the emissions. Finally, specific attention to biomass burning events shows that modeled plumes are less spread out than the observed ones. This is confirmed for the 2010 Russian fires with a comparison using in situ observations. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Seasonal variation of photosynthetic model parameters and leaf area index from global Fluxnet eddy covariance data

Global vegetation models require the photosynthetic parameters, maximum carboxylation capacity (V(cm)), and quantum yield (alpha) to parameterize their plant functional types (PFTs). The purpose of this work is to determine how much the scaling of the parameters from leaf to ecosystem level through a seasonally varying leaf area index (LAI) explains the parameter variation within and between PFTs. Using Fluxnet data, we simulate a seasonally variable LAI(F) for a large range of sites, comparable to the LAI(M) derived from MODIS. There are discrepancies when LAI(F) reach zero levels and LAI(M) still provides a small positive value. We find that temperature is the most common constraint for LAI(F) in 55% of the simulations, while global radiation and vapor pressure deficit are the key constraints for 18% and 27% of the simulations, respectively, while large differences in this forcing still exist when looking at specific PFTs. Despite these differences, the annual photosynthesis simulations are comparable when using LAI(F) or LAIM (r(2) = 0.89). We investigated further the seasonal variation of ecosystem-scale parameters derived with LAI(F). V(cm) has the largest seasonal variation. This holds for all vegetation types and climates. The parameter alpha is less variable. By including ecosystem-scale parameter seasonality we can explain a considerable part of the ecosystem-scale parameter variation between PFTs. The remaining unexplained leaf-scale PFT variation still needs further work, including elucidating the precise role of leaf and soil level nitrogen.

Worldwide spatiotemporal atmospheric ammonia (NH3) columns variability revealed by satellite

We exploit six years of measurements from the IASI/MetOp-A instrument to identify seasonal patterns and inter-annual variability of atmospheric NH 3 . This is achieved by analyzing the time evolution of the monthly-mean NH 3 columns in 12 subcontinental areas around the world, simultaneously considering measurements from IASI morning and evening overpasses. For most regions, IASI has a sufficient sensitivity throughout the years to capture the seasonal patterns of NH 3 columns, and we show that each region is characterized by a well-marked and distinctive cycle, with maxima mainly related to underlying emission processes. The largest column abundances and seasonal amplitudes throughout the years are found in Southwestern Asia,with maxima twice as large as what is observed in Southeastern China. The relation between emission sources and retrieved NH 3 columns is emphasized at smaller regional scale by inferring a climatology of the month of maximum columns.

Land management: data availability and process understanding for global change studies

In the light of daunting global sustainability challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security, improving our understanding of the complex dynamics of the Earth system is crucial. However, large knowledge gaps related to the effects of land management persist, in particular those human-induced changes in terrestrial ecosystems that do not result in land-cover conversions. Here, we review the current state of knowledge of ten common land management activities for their biogeochemical and biophysical impacts, the level of process understanding and data availability. Our review shows that ca. one-tenth of the ice-free land surface is under intense human management, half under medium and one-fifth under extensive management. Based on our review, we cluster these ten management activities into three groups: (i) management activities for which data sets are available, and for which a good knowledge base exists (cropland harvest and irrigation); (ii) management activities for which sufficient knowledge on biogeochemical and biophysical effects exists but robust global data sets are lacking (forest harvest, tree species selection, grazing and mowing harvest, N fertilization); and (iii) land management practices with severe data gaps concomitant with an unsatisfactory level of process understanding (crop species selection, artificial wetland drainage, tillage and fire management and crop residue management, an element of crop harvest). Although we identify multiple impediments to progress, we conclude that the current status of process understanding and data availability is sufficient to advance with incorporating management in, for example, Earth system or dynamic vegetation models in order to provide a systematic assessment of their role in the Earth system. This review contributes to a strategic prioritization of research efforts across multiple disciplines, including land system research, ecological research and Earth system modelling.

Global surface soil moisture from the Microwave Radiation Imager onboard the Fengyun-3B satellite

Soil moisture retrievals from China’s recently launched meteorological Fengyun-3B satellite are presented. An established retrieval algorithm – the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) – was applied to observations of the Microwave Radiation Imager (MWRI) onboard this satellite. The newly developed soil moisture retrievals from this satellite mission may be incorporated in an existing global microwave-based soil moisture database. To reach consistency with an existing data set of multi-satellite soil moisture retrievals, an intercalibration step was applied to correct brightness temperatures for sensor differences between MWRI and the radiometer of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission’s (TRMM’s) Microwave Imager (TMI), resulting from their individual calibration procedures. The newly derived soil moisture and vegetation optical depth product showed a high degree of consistency with parallel retrievals from both TMI and WindSat, the two satellites that are observing during the same time period and are already part of the LPRM database. High correlation (R > 0.60 at night-time) between the LPRM and official MWRI soil moisture products was shown over the validation networks experiencing semiarid climate conditions. The skills drop below 0.50 over forested regions, with the performance of the LPRM product slightly better than the official MWRI product. To demonstrate the promising use of the MWRI soil moisture in drought monitoring, a case study for a recent and unusually dry East Asian summer Monsoon was conducted. The MWRI soil moisture products are able to effectively delineate the regions that are experiencing a considerable drought, highly in agreement with spatial patterns of precipitation and temperature anomalies. The results in this study give confidence in the soil moisture retrievals from the MWRI onboard Fengyun-3B. The integration of the newly derived products into the existing database will allow a better understanding the diurnal, seasonal and interannual variations, and long-term (35 year) changes of soil moisture at the global scale, consequently enhancing hydrological, meteorological, and climate studies.