Evidence of Carbon Uptake Associated with Vegetation Greening Trends in Eastern China

Persistent and widespread increase of vegetation cover, identified as greening, has been observed in areas of the planet over late 20th century and early 21st century by satellite-derived vegetation indices. It is difficult to verify whether these regions are net carbon sinks or sources by studying vegetation indices alone. In this study, we investigate greening trends in Eastern China (EC) and corresponding trends in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. We used multiple vegetation indices including NDVI and EVI to characterize changes in vegetation activity over EC from 2003 to 2016. Gap-filled time series of column-averaged CO₂ dry air mole fraction (XCO₂) from January 2003 to May 2016, based on observations from SCIAMACHY, GOSAT, and OCO-2 satellites, were used to calculate XCO₂ changes during growing season for 13 years. We derived a relationship between XCO₂ and surface net CO₂ fluxes from two inversion model simulations, CarbonTracker and Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC), and used those relationships to estimate the biospheric CO₂ flux enhancement based on satellite observed XCO₂ changes. We observed significant growing period (GP) greening trends in NDVI and EVI related to cropland intensification and forest growth in the region. After removing the influence of large urban center CO₂ emissions, we estimated an enhanced XCO₂ drawdown during the GP of −0.070 to −0.084 ppm yr⁻¹. Increased carbon uptake during the GP was estimated to be 28.41 to 46.04 Tg C, mainly from land management, which could offset about 2–3% of EC’s annual fossil fuel emissions. These results show the potential of using multi-satellite observed XCO₂ to estimate carbon fluxes from the regional biosphere, which could be used to verify natural sinks included as national contributions of greenhouse gas emissions reduction in international climate change agreements like the UNFCC Paris Accord

Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents

Peer reviewe

Evidence of Carbon Uptake Associated with Vegetation Greening Trends in Eastern China

Persistent and widespread increase of vegetation cover, identified as greening, has been observed in areas of the planet over late 20th century and early 21st century by satellite-derived vegetation indices. It is difficult to verify whether these regions are net carbon sinks or sources by studying vegetation indices alone. In this study, we investigate greening trends in Eastern China (EC) and corresponding trends in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. We used multiple vegetation indices including NDVI and EVI to characterize changes in vegetation activity over EC from 2003 to 2016. Gap-filled time series of column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction (XCO2) from January 2003 to May 2016, based on observations from SCIAMACHY, GOSAT, and OCO-2 satellites, were used to calculate XCO2 changes during growing season for 13 years. We derived a relationship between XCO2 and surface net CO2 fluxes from two inversion model simulations, CarbonTracker and Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC), and used those relationships to estimate the biospheric CO2 flux enhancement based on satellite observed XCO2 changes. We observed significant growing period (GP) greening trends in NDVI and EVI related to cropland intensification and forest growth in the region. After removing the influence of large urban center CO2 emissions, we estimated an enhanced XCO2 drawdown during the GP of −0.070 to −0.084 ppm yr−1. Increased carbon uptake during the GP was estimated to be 28.41 to 46.04 Tg C, mainly from land management, which could offset about 2–3% of EC’s annual fossil fuel emissions. These results show the potential of using multi-satellite observed XCO2 to estimate carbon fluxes from the regional biosphere, which could be used to verify natural sinks included as national contributions of greenhouse gas emissions reduction in international climate change agreements like the UNFCC Paris Accord

CGRAD 2017 Resolução 12

Resolução de nº 12 do ano de 2017 da reunião da Câmara de Graduação da UFSC

Spatio-Temporal Mapping of Multi-Satellite Observed Column Atmospheric CO2 Using Precision-Weighted Kriging Method

Column-averaged dry air mole fraction of atmospheric CO2 (XCO2), obtained by multiple satellite observations since 2003 such as ENVISAT/SCIAMACHY, GOSAT, and OCO-2 satellite, is valuable for understanding the spatio-temporal variations of atmospheric CO2 concentrations which are related to carbon uptake and emissions. In order to construct long-term spatio-temporal continuous XCO2 from multiple satellites with different temporal and spatial periods of observations, we developed a precision-weighted spatio-temporal kriging method for integrating and mapping multi-satellite observed XCO2. The approach integrated XCO2 from different sensors considering differences in vertical sensitivity, overpass time, the field of view, repeat cycle and measurement precision. We produced globally mapped XCO2 (GM-XCO2) with spatial/temporal resolution of 1 × 1 degree every eight days from 2003 to 2016 with corresponding data precision and interpolation uncertainty in each grid. The predicted GM-XCO2 precision improved in most grids compared with conventional spatio-temporal kriging results, especially during the satellites overlapping period (0.3–0.5 ppm). The method showed good reliability with R2 of 0.97 from cross-validation. GM-XCO2 showed good accuracy with a standard deviation of bias from total carbon column observing network (TCCON) measurements of 1.05 ppm. This method has potential applications for integrating and mapping XCO2 or other similar datasets observed from multiple satellite sensors. The resulting GM-XCO2 product may be also used in different carbon cycle research applications with different precision requirements

Improved global wetland carbon isotopic signatures support post-2006 microbial methane emission increase

International audienceAtmospheric concentrations of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, have strongly increased since 2007. Measurements of stable carbon isotopes of methane can constrain emissions if the isotopic compositions are known; however, isotopic compositions of methane emissions from wetlands are poorly constrained despite their importance. Here, we use a process-based biogeochemistry model to calculate the stable carbon isotopic composition of global wetland methane emissions. We estimate a mean global signature of −61.3 ± 0.7‰ and find that tropical wetland emissions are enriched by ~11‰ relative to boreal wetlands. Our model shows improved resolution of regional, latitudinal and global variations in isotopic composition of wetland emissions. Atmospheric simulation scenarios with the improved wetland isotopic composition suggest that increases in atmospheric methane since 2007 are attributable to rising microbial emissions. Our findings substantially reduce uncertainty in the stable carbon isotopic composition of methane emissions from wetlands and improve understanding of the global methane budget