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Recent increases in terrestrial carbon uptake at little cost to the water cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Lei Cheng

    (CSIRO Land and Water, Black Mountain)

  • Lu Zhang

    (CSIRO Land and Water, Black Mountain)

  • Ying-Ping Wang

    (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere)

  • Josep G. Canadell

    (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere)

  • Francis H. S. Chiew

    (CSIRO Land and Water, Black Mountain)

  • Jason Beringer

    (The University of Western Australia)

  • Longhui Li

    (University of Technology Sydney)

  • Diego G. Miralles

    (Ghent University)

  • Shilong Piao

    (Peking University
    Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yongqiang Zhang

    (CSIRO Land and Water, Black Mountain)

Abstract

Quantifying the responses of the coupled carbon and water cycles to current global warming and rising atmospheric CO2 concentration is crucial for predicting and adapting to climate changes. Here we show that terrestrial carbon uptake (i.e. gross primary production) increased significantly from 1982 to 2011 using a combination of ground-based and remotely sensed land and atmospheric observations. Importantly, we find that the terrestrial carbon uptake increase is not accompanied by a proportional increase in water use (i.e. evapotranspiration) but is largely (about 90%) driven by increased carbon uptake per unit of water use, i.e. water use efficiency. The increased water use efficiency is positively related to rising CO2 concentration and increased canopy leaf area index, and negatively influenced by increased vapour pressure deficits. Our findings suggest that rising atmospheric CO2 concentration has caused a shift in terrestrial water economics of carbon uptake.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei Cheng & Lu Zhang & Ying-Ping Wang & Josep G. Canadell & Francis H. S. Chiew & Jason Beringer & Longhui Li & Diego G. Miralles & Shilong Piao & Yongqiang Zhang, 2017. "Recent increases in terrestrial carbon uptake at little cost to the water cycle," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-00114-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00114-5
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    Cited by:

    1. Jiang, Shouzheng & Wu, Jie & Wang, Zhihui & He, Ziling & Wang, Mingjun & Yao, Weiwei & Feng, Yu, 2023. "Spatiotemporal variations of cropland carbon sequestration and water loss across China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    2. Chen, Yanan & Ding, Zhi & Yu, Pujia & Yang, Hong & Song, Lisheng & Fan, Lei & Han, Xujun & Ma, Mingguo & Tang, Xuguang, 2022. "Quantifying the variability in water use efficiency from the canopy to ecosystem scale across main croplands," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    3. Yang, Shanshan & Zhang, Jiahua & Wang, Jingwen & Zhang, Sha & Bai, Yun & Shi, Siqi & Cao, Dan, 2022. "Spatiotemporal variations of water productivity for cropland and driving factors over China during 2001–2015," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    4. Zefeng Chen & Weiguang Wang & Giovanni Forzieri & Alessandro Cescatti, 2024. "Transition from positive to negative indirect CO2 effects on the vegetation carbon uptake," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.

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