The temporal and spatial patterns of terrestrial net primary productivity in China

Abstract

In this paper, we use CEVSA, a process-based model, which has been validated on regional and global scales, to explore the temporal and spatial patterns of Net Primary Productivity (NPP) and its responses to interannual climate fluctuations in China’s terrestrial ecosystems over the period 1981–1998. The estimated results suggest that, in this study period, the averaged annual total NPP is about 3.09 Gt C/yr1 and average NPP is about 342 g C/m2. The results also showed that the precipitation was the key factor determining the spatial distribution and temporal trends of NPP. Temporally, the total NPP exhibited a slowly increasing trend. In some ENSO years (e.g. 1982, 1986, 1997) NPP decreased clearly compared to the previous year, but the relationship between ENSO and NPP is complex due to the integrated effects of monsoons and regional differentiation. Spatially, the relatively high NPP occurred at the middle high latitudes, the low latitudes and the lower appeared at the middle latitudes. On national scale, precipitation is the key control factor on NPP variations and there exists a weak correlation between NPP and temperature, but regional responses are greatly different.