IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v256y2013icp23-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Combined effect of global warming and increased CO2-concentration on vegetation growth in water-limited conditions

Author

Listed:
  • Claesson, Jonas
  • Nycander, Jonas

Abstract

The most severe impact of climate change on vegetation growth and agriculture is likely to occur under water-limited conditions. Under such conditions the plants optimize the inward flux of CO2 and the outward flux of water vapor (the transpiration) by regulating the size of the stomatal openings. Higher temperature increases water loss through transpiration, forcing the plants to diminish the stomatal openings, which decreases photosynthesis. This is counteracted by higher CO2 concentration, which allows plants to maintain the inward flux of CO2 through the smaller openings. These two counteracting effects, combined with the change in precipitation, determine the net change of biological productivity. Here, a vegetation sensitivity approximation (VSA) is introduced, in order to understand and estimate the combined effect of changed temperature, CO2 and precipitation to first order. The VSA is based on the physical laws of gas flux through the stomatal openings, and is only valid under water-limited conditions. It assumes that the temperature depends logarithmically on the CO2 concentration with a given climate sensitivity. Precipitation is included by assuming that it is proportional to the transpiration. This is reasonable under water-limited conditions, when transpiration is often a large fraction of the precipitation. The VSA is compared to simulations with the dynamic vegetation model LPJ. The agreement is reasonable, and the deviations can be understood by comparison with Köppen's definition of arid climate: in an arid climate growth increases more according to LPJ than according to the VSA, and in non-arid conditions the reverse is true. Both the VSA and the LPJ simulations generally show increased growth with increasing CO2 levels and the resulting temperature increase, assuming precipitation to be unchanged. Thus, in this case the negative temperature effect is more than compensated by the positive effect of CO2.

Suggested Citation

  • Claesson, Jonas & Nycander, Jonas, 2013. "Combined effect of global warming and increased CO2-concentration on vegetation growth in water-limited conditions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 256(C), pages 23-30.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:256:y:2013:i:c:p:23-30
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.02.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380013000872
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.02.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stanley D. Smith & Travis E. Huxman & Stephen F. Zitzer & Therese N. Charlet & David C. Housman & James S. Coleman & Lynn K. Fenstermaker & Jeffrey R. Seemann & Robert S. Nowak, 2000. "Elevated CO2 increases productivity and invasive species success in an arid ecosystem," Nature, Nature, vol. 408(6808), pages 79-82, November.
    2. Katharine M. Willett & Nathan P. Gillett & Philip D. Jones & Peter W. Thorne, 2007. "Attribution of observed surface humidity changes to human influence," Nature, Nature, vol. 449(7163), pages 710-712, October.
    3. Cynthia Rosenzweig & David Karoly & Marta Vicarelli & Peter Neofotis & Qigang Wu & Gino Casassa & Annette Menzel & Terry L. Root & Nicole Estrella & Bernard Seguin & Piotr Tryjanowski & Chunzhen Liu &, 2008. "Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change," Nature, Nature, vol. 453(7193), pages 353-357, May.
    4. S. Bony & R Colman & Vm Kattsov & Rp Allan & Cs Bretherton & Jl Dufresne & A Hall & Stéphane Hallegatte & Mm Holland & W Ingram & Da Randall & Bj Soden & G Tselioudis & Mj Webb, 2006. "How well do we understand and evaluate climate change feedback processes?," Post-Print hal-00716782, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ropero, R.F. & Aguilera, P.A. & Rumí, R., 2015. "Analysis of the socioecological structure and dynamics of the territory using a hybrid Bayesian network classifier," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 311(C), pages 73-87.
    2. Xu, Xiaoming & Li, Dejun & Luo, Yiqi, 2015. "Modeled ecosystem responses to intra-annual redistribution and levels of precipitation in a prairie grassland," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 297(C), pages 33-41.
    3. Walter Leal Filho & Mark Mifsud & Petra Molthan-Hill & Gustavo J. Nagy & Lucas Veiga Ávila & Amanda Lange Salvia, 2019. "Climate Change Scepticism at Universities: A Global Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Mohamed M. Mostafa, 2016. "Post-materialism, Religiosity, Political Orientation, Locus of Control and Concern for Global Warming: A Multilevel Analysis Across 40 Nations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1273-1298, September.
    5. Mohamed M. Mostafa, 2020. "Catastrophe Theory Predicts International Concern for Global Warming," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(3), pages 709-731, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William Ginn, 2022. "Climate Disasters and the Macroeconomy: Does State-Dependence Matter? Evidence for the US," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 141-161, March.
    2. Baruch Ziv & Hadas Saaroni, 2011. "The contribution of moisture to heat stress in a period of global warming: the case of the Mediterranean," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 305-315, January.
    3. Monika Winn & Manfred Kirchgeorg & Andrew Griffiths & Martina K. Linnenluecke & Elmar Günther, 2011. "Impacts from climate change on organizations: a conceptual foundation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 157-173, March.
    4. Branislava Jovanovic & Dean Collins & Karl Braganza & Doerte Jakob & David Jones, 2011. "A high-quality monthly total cloud amount dataset for Australia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 108(3), pages 485-517, October.
    5. Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe & Vivian Adams Nabie, 2014. "Climate Change and Cerebrospinal Meningitis in the Ghanaian Meningitis Belt," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, July.
    6. Christian Huggel & Dáithí Stone & Hajo Eicken & Gerrit Hansen, 2015. "Potential and limitations of the attribution of climate change impacts for informing loss and damage discussions and policies," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 453-467, December.
    7. Don Driscoll & Adam Felton & Philip Gibbons & Annika Felton & Nicola Munro & David Lindenmayer, 2012. "Priorities in policy and management when existing biodiversity stressors interact with climate-change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 111(3), pages 533-557, April.
    8. Francisco Estrada & Pierre Perron, 2019. "Breaks, Trends and the Attribution of Climate Change: A Time-Series Analysis," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 42(83), pages 1-31.
    9. Gift Nxumalo & Bashar Bashir & Karam Alsafadi & Hussein Bachir & Endre Harsányi & Sana Arshad & Safwan Mohammed, 2022. "Meteorological Drought Variability and Its Impact on Wheat Yields across South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-22, December.
    10. Chen, Zheng & Wu, Yong-Ping & Feng, Guo-Lin & Qian, Zhong-Hua & Sun, Gui-Quan, 2021. "Effects of global warming on pattern dynamics of vegetation: Wuwei in China as a case," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 390(C).
    11. Nackley, Lloyd L. & Vogt, Kristiina A. & Kim, Soo-Hyung, 2014. "Arundo donax water use and photosynthetic responses to drought and elevated CO2," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 13-22.
    12. Quiroga, Sonia & Iglesias, Ana, 2009. "A comparison of the climate risks of cereal, citrus, grapevine and olive production in Spain," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 101(1-2), pages 91-100, June.
    13. Chunbo Chen & Chi Zhang, 2017. "Projecting the CO 2 and Climatic Change Effects on the Net Primary Productivity of the Urban Ecosystems in Phoenix, AZ in the 21st Century under Multiple RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) Sce," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-20, August.
    14. John G. Hampton & Anthony J. Conner & Birte Boelt & Thomas G. Chastain & Phil Rolston, 2016. "Climate Change: Seed Production and Options for Adaptation," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-17, July.
    15. Ferenc M. Miskolczi, 2010. "The Stable Stationary Value of the Earth's Global Average Atmospheric Planck-Weighted Greenhouse-Gas Optical Thickness," Energy & Environment, , vol. 21(4), pages 243-262, August.
    16. Jieming Chou & Tian Xian & Wenjie Dong & Yuan Xu, 2018. "Regional Temporal and Spatial Trends in Drought and Flood Disasters in China and Assessment of Economic Losses in Recent Years," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Yektansani, Kiana & Azizi, SeyedSoroosh, 2021. "Using Machine Learning to Predict Consumers’ Environmental Attitudes and Beliefs," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313902, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Desalegn D. Serba & Reagan W. Hejl & Worku Burayu & Kai Umeda & Bradley Shaun Bushman & Clinton F. Williams, 2022. "Pertinent Water-Saving Management Strategies for Sustainable Turfgrass in the Desert U.S. Southwest," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-17, October.
    19. Marten, Alex L. & Newbold, Stephen C., 2012. "Estimating the social cost of non-CO2 GHG emissions: Methane and nitrous oxide," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 957-972.
    20. Slocum, Alexander H. & Gessel, David J., 2022. "Evolving from a hydrocarbon-based to a sustainable economy: Starting with a case study for Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:256:y:2013:i:c:p:23-30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.