Search results

Phosphorus (P) is a critical macronutrient for plant growth, often limiting plant production in areas where plant demand is higher than soil supply. In contrast to nitrogen (N), P cannot be sourced from the atmosphere; therefore, where it is rare, it becomes a strong constraint on primary production. Due to this, most dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) are incorporating a prognostic P cycle

Land cover and land management changes (LCLMCs) have a substantial impact on the global carbon budget and, consequently, on global climate via the biogeochemical (BGC) effects. The commonly considered BGC effects refer to the direct influence of LCLMCs on local carbon stocks (local BGC effects). However, LCLMCs also influence climate by altering the local surface energy balance due to changes in l

Advances in Earth observation capabilities mean that there is now a multitude of spatially resolved data sets available that can support the quantification of water and carbon pools and fluxes at the land surface. However, such quantification ideally requires efficient synergistic exploitation of those data, which in turn requires carbon and water land-surface models with the capability to simulta

The European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) is an insect species that causes significant damage to Norway spruce (Picea abies) forests across Europe. Infestation by bark beetles can profoundly impact forest ecosystems, affecting their structure and composition and affecting the carbon cycle and biodiversity, including a decrease in net primary productivity (NPP), a key indicator of forest he

Semi-arid ecosystems, common across the Australian continent, strongly influence the inter-annual variability and trend in the global terrestrial net carbon sink. Here we explore the future Australian terrestrial carbon cycle using the CMIP6 ensemble, and the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS. Uncertainty in Australia's carbon storage in vegetation ranged between 6 and 49 PgC at the end of

Climate-vegetation feedbacks (CVFs) can amplify or mitigate climate variations. These feedbacks operate at multiple timescales. Fast processes such as leaf-scale carbon fluxes operate at sub-annual timescales, while slow processes, driven by changes in forest composition and structure, occur over decadal and longer timescales. Slow processes are rarely directly observed from instrumental data; yet

Land cover governs biogeophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks between the land surface and atmosphere. Holocene vegetation-atmosphere interactions are of particular interest, both to understand the climate effects of intensifying human land use and as a possible explanation for the Holocene Conundrum, a widely studied mismatch between simulated and reconstructed temperatures. Progress addressing

Accurate maps of past land cover and human land use are necessary for studying the impact of anthropogenic land-cover changes, such as deforestation, on the climate. The maps of past land cover should ideally be separated into naturally occurring vegetation and human-induced changes, thereby enabling the quantification of the effect of human land use on the past climate. A Bayesian hierarchical mo

Part of the Northern Hemisphere has experienced widespread autumn cooling during the most recent decades despite overall warming, but how this contrasting temperature change has influenced the ecosystem carbon exchange remains unclear. Here, we show that autumn cooling has occurred over about half of the area north of 25° N since 2004, producing a weak cooling trend over the period 2004–2018. Mult

Land ecosystems contribute to climate change mitigation by taking up approximately 30% of anthropogenically emitted carbon. However, estimates of the amount and distribution of carbon uptake across the world's ecosystems or biomes display great uncertainty. The latter hinders a full understanding of the mechanisms and drivers of land carbon uptake, and predictions of the future fate of the land ca

Understanding uncertainties and sensitivities of projected ecosystem dynamics under environmental change is of immense value for research and climate change policy. Here, we analyze sensitivities (change in model outputs per unit change in inputs) and uncertainties (changes in model outputs scaled to uncertainty in inputs) of vegetation dynamics under climate change, projected by a state-of-the-ar

Increasing tree growth and mortality rates in Europe are still poorly understood and have been attributed to a variety of drivers. This study explored the role of climate drivers, management and age structure in driving changes in tree mortality rates in six Central European countries from 1985 to 2010, using the process-based vegetation model LPJ-GUESS. Simulations show a strong positive trend in

If you really want to know how much Australia contributes to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere, you have to study all the “sources” and “sinks”.Sources release CO₂ into the atmosphere, while sinks take it out. There are sources from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, and there are natural sinks such as plants absorbing CO₂. You can tally it all up on a balance sheet

Pollen-based quantitative vegetation reconstructions using multiple sedimentary basins from the same area, along with their quantified relevant pollen source areas, are a powerful means to study how long-term human impact has affected vegetation and shaped the currently protected heritage landscapes at different spatial scales. Our study presents the outcome of a palynological investigation in Kar

The article examines Kim Stanley Robinson's novel The Ministry for the Future (2020) as an example of how the commonsensical modern distinction between the material and the social pervades mainstream deliberations on technological solutions to problems of sustainability. To expose the fetishism of modern technology, founded on the unwarranted ontological distinction between nature and society, we

Australia, characterized by extensive and heterogeneous terrestrial ecosystems, plays a critical role in the global carbon cycle and in efforts to mitigate climate change. Prior research has quantified vegetation productivity and carbon balance within the Australian context over preceding decades. Nonetheless, the responses of vegetation and carbon dynamics to the evolving phenomena of climate cha

Concerns over climate change are motivated in large part because of their impact on human society. Assessing the effect of that uncertainty on specific potential impacts is demanding, since it requires a systematic survey over both climate and impacts models. We provide a comprehensive evaluation of uncertainty in projected crop yields for maize, spring and winter wheat, rice, and soybean, using a

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. Studi

Plant phenology plays a fundamental role in land atmosphere interactions, and its variability and variations are an indicator of climate and environmental changes. For this reason, current land surface models include phenology parameterizations and related biophysical and biogeochemical processes. In this work, the climatology of the beginning and end of the growing season, simulated by the land c