On the detection of summertime terrestrial photosynthetic variability from its atmospheric signature

Abstract

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 31 (2004): L09207, doi:10.1029/2004GL019453.We identify the climatic signatures of the summertime terrestrial photosynthesis variability using a long simulation of pre-industrial climate performed with the NCAR coupled global climate-carbon model. Since plant physiology controls simultaneously CO2 uptake and surface fluxes of water, changes in photosynthesis are accompanied by changes in numerous climate variables: daily maximum temperature, diurnal temperature range, Bowen ratio, canopy temperature and tropospheric lapse rate. Results show that these climate variables may be used as powerful proxies for photosynthesis activity for subtropical vegetation and for tropical vegetation when photosynthetic variability may be limited by water availability.Support for this work was provided by National Science Foundation grant ATM-9987457, NASA EOS-IDS grant NAG5-9514, WHOI contribution #11077 and the NCAR Climate Simulation Laboratory (CSL)