Acceleration of global vegetation greenup from combined effects of climate change and human land management.

Abstract

Global warming and human land management have greatly influenced vegetation growth through both changes in spring phenology and photosynthetic primary production. This will presumably impact the velocity of vegetation greenup (Vgreenup, the daily rate of changes in vegetation productivity during greenup period), yet little is currently known about the spatio-temporal patterns of Vgreenup of global vegetation. Here, we define Vgreenup as the ratio of the amplitude of greenup (Agreenup) to the duration of greenup (Dgreenup) and derive global Vgreenup from 34-year satellite leaf area index (LAI) observations to study spatio-temporal dynamics of Vgreenup at the global, hemispheric, and ecosystem scales. We find that 19.9% of the pixels analyzed (n=1,175,453) experienced significant trends toward higher greenup rates by an average of 0.018m2 m-2 day-1 for 1982-2015 as compared to 8.6% of pixels with significant negative trends (p<0.05). Global distribution and dynamics of Vgreenup show high spatial heterogeneity and ecosystem-specific patterns, which is primarily determined by the high spatial variation in Agreenup, while the temporal dynamics of Vgreenup are directly controlled by both changes in Dgreenup and Agreenup. Areas with the largest Vgreenup and largest positive trends are both observed in deciduous and mixed forests as compared to nonforest ecosystems showing both lower Vgreenup and trends. For nonforest ecosystems, human-managed ecosystems (e.g., rangelands and rainfed croplands) exhibited higher Vgreenup and positive trends than those of natural counterparts, suggesting strong imprints of human land management on terrestrial ecosystem functioning. Globally, warming has accelerated Vgreenup in temperature-constrained high latitude forest ecosystems and arctic regions, but decelerated Vgreenup in temperate and arid/semiarid areas. These results suggest that the combined effects of climate change and human land management have greatly accelerated global vegetation greenup, with important implications for changes in terrestrial ecosystem functioning and global carbon cycling.