Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades

Zhenzhong Zeng; Shilong Piao; Laurent Z.X. Li; Liming Zhou; Philippe Ciais; Tao Wang; Yue Li; Xu Lian; Eric F. Wood; Pierre Friedlingstein; Jiafu Mao; Lyndon D. Estes; Ranga B. Myneni; Shushi Peng; Xiaoying Shi; Sonia I. Seneviratne; Yingping Wang

doi:10.1038/nclimate3299

Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades

Zhenzhong Zeng, Shilong Piao, Laurent Z.X. Li, Liming Zhou, Philippe Ciais, Tao Wang, Yue Li, Xu Lian, Eric F. Wood, Pierre Friedlingstein, Jiafu Mao, Lyndon D. Estes, Ranga B. Myneni, Shushi Peng, Xiaoying Shi, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Yingping Wang

Earth Systems Modeling

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439 Scopus citations

Abstract

The surface air temperature response to vegetation changes has been studied for the extreme case of land-cover change; yet, it has never been quantified for the slow but persistent increase in leaf area index (LAI) observed over the past 30 years (Earth greening). Here we isolate the fingerprint of increasing LAI on surface air temperature using a coupled land-atmosphere global climate model prescribed with satellite LAI observations. We find that the global greening has slowed down the rise in global land-surface air temperature by 0.09 ± 0.02 °C since 1982. This net cooling effect is the sum of cooling from increased evapotranspiration (70%), changed atmospheric circulation (44%), decreased shortwave transmissivity (21%), and warming from increased longwave air emissivity (â 29%) and decreased albedo (â 6%). The global cooling originated from the regions where LAI has increased, including boreal Eurasia, Europe, India, northwest Amazonia, and the Sahel. Increasing LAI did not, however, significantly change surface air temperature in eastern North America and East Asia, where the effects of large-scale atmospheric circulation changes mask local vegetation feedbacks. Overall, the sum of biophysical feedbacks related to the greening of the Earth mitigated 12% of global land-surface warming for the past 30 years.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	432-436
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Climate Change
Volume	7
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3299
State	Published - Jun 1 2017

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41530528 and 41561134016), National Youth Top-notch Talent Support Program in China, and the 111 Project (B14001).We thank the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin, China (NSCC-TJ), the National Computer Center IDRIS of CNRS in France, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States for providing computing resources.

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Zeng, Z., Piao, S., Li, L. Z. X., Zhou, L., Ciais, P., Wang, T., Li, Y., Lian, X., Wood, E. F., Friedlingstein, P., Mao, J., Estes, L. D., Myneni, R. B., Peng, S., Shi, X., Seneviratne, S. I., & Wang, Y. (2017). Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades. Nature Climate Change, 7(6), 432-436. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3299

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title = "Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades",

abstract = "The surface air temperature response to vegetation changes has been studied for the extreme case of land-cover change; yet, it has never been quantified for the slow but persistent increase in leaf area index (LAI) observed over the past 30 years (Earth greening). Here we isolate the fingerprint of increasing LAI on surface air temperature using a coupled land-atmosphere global climate model prescribed with satellite LAI observations. We find that the global greening has slowed down the rise in global land-surface air temperature by 0.09 ± 0.02 °C since 1982. This net cooling effect is the sum of cooling from increased evapotranspiration (70\%), changed atmospheric circulation (44\%), decreased shortwave transmissivity (21\%), and warming from increased longwave air emissivity ({\^a} 29\%) and decreased albedo ({\^a} 6\%). The global cooling originated from the regions where LAI has increased, including boreal Eurasia, Europe, India, northwest Amazonia, and the Sahel. Increasing LAI did not, however, significantly change surface air temperature in eastern North America and East Asia, where the effects of large-scale atmospheric circulation changes mask local vegetation feedbacks. Overall, the sum of biophysical feedbacks related to the greening of the Earth mitigated 12\% of global land-surface warming for the past 30 years.",

author = "Zhenzhong Zeng and Shilong Piao and Li, \{Laurent Z.X.\} and Liming Zhou and Philippe Ciais and Tao Wang and Yue Li and Xu Lian and Wood, \{Eric F.\} and Pierre Friedlingstein and Jiafu Mao and Estes, \{Lyndon D.\} and Myneni, \{Ranga B.\} and Shushi Peng and Xiaoying Shi and Seneviratne, \{Sonia I.\} and Yingping Wang",

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AU - Zeng, Zhenzhong

AU - Piao, Shilong

AU - Li, Laurent Z.X.

AU - Zhou, Liming

AU - Ciais, Philippe

AU - Wang, Tao

AU - Li, Yue

AU - Lian, Xu

AU - Wood, Eric F.

AU - Friedlingstein, Pierre

AU - Mao, Jiafu

AU - Estes, Lyndon D.

AU - Myneni, Ranga B.

AU - Peng, Shushi

AU - Shi, Xiaoying

AU - Seneviratne, Sonia I.

AU - Wang, Yingping

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N2 - The surface air temperature response to vegetation changes has been studied for the extreme case of land-cover change; yet, it has never been quantified for the slow but persistent increase in leaf area index (LAI) observed over the past 30 years (Earth greening). Here we isolate the fingerprint of increasing LAI on surface air temperature using a coupled land-atmosphere global climate model prescribed with satellite LAI observations. We find that the global greening has slowed down the rise in global land-surface air temperature by 0.09 ± 0.02 °C since 1982. This net cooling effect is the sum of cooling from increased evapotranspiration (70%), changed atmospheric circulation (44%), decreased shortwave transmissivity (21%), and warming from increased longwave air emissivity (â 29%) and decreased albedo (â 6%). The global cooling originated from the regions where LAI has increased, including boreal Eurasia, Europe, India, northwest Amazonia, and the Sahel. Increasing LAI did not, however, significantly change surface air temperature in eastern North America and East Asia, where the effects of large-scale atmospheric circulation changes mask local vegetation feedbacks. Overall, the sum of biophysical feedbacks related to the greening of the Earth mitigated 12% of global land-surface warming for the past 30 years.

AB - The surface air temperature response to vegetation changes has been studied for the extreme case of land-cover change; yet, it has never been quantified for the slow but persistent increase in leaf area index (LAI) observed over the past 30 years (Earth greening). Here we isolate the fingerprint of increasing LAI on surface air temperature using a coupled land-atmosphere global climate model prescribed with satellite LAI observations. We find that the global greening has slowed down the rise in global land-surface air temperature by 0.09 ± 0.02 °C since 1982. This net cooling effect is the sum of cooling from increased evapotranspiration (70%), changed atmospheric circulation (44%), decreased shortwave transmissivity (21%), and warming from increased longwave air emissivity (â 29%) and decreased albedo (â 6%). The global cooling originated from the regions where LAI has increased, including boreal Eurasia, Europe, India, northwest Amazonia, and the Sahel. Increasing LAI did not, however, significantly change surface air temperature in eastern North America and East Asia, where the effects of large-scale atmospheric circulation changes mask local vegetation feedbacks. Overall, the sum of biophysical feedbacks related to the greening of the Earth mitigated 12% of global land-surface warming for the past 30 years.

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Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades

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