Asymmetric warming significantly affects net primary production, but not ecosystem carbon balances of forest and grassland ecosystems in northern China - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Mar 13:5:9115.
doi: 10.1038/srep09115.

Asymmetric warming significantly affects net primary production, but not ecosystem carbon balances of forest and grassland ecosystems in northern China

Hongxin Su  1 , Jinchao Feng  2 , Jan C Axmacher  3 , Weiguo Sang  1
Affiliations

Asymmetric warming significantly affects net primary production, but not ecosystem carbon balances of forest and grassland ecosystems in northern China

Hongxin Su et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

We combine the process-based ecosystem model (Biome-BGC) with climate change-scenarios based on both RegCM3 model outputs and historic observed trends to quantify differential effects of symmetric and asymmetric warming on ecosystem net primary productivity (NPP), heterotrophic respiration (Rh) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) of six ecosystem types representing different climatic zones of northern China. Analysis of covariance shows that NPP is significant greater at most ecosystems under the various environmental change scenarios once temperature asymmetries are taken into consideration. However, these differences do not lead to significant differences in NEP, which indicates that asymmetry in climate change does not result in significant alterations of the overall carbon balance in the dominating forest or grassland ecosystems. Overall, NPP, Rh and NEP are regulated by highly interrelated effects of increases in temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentrations and precipitation changes, while the magnitude of these effects strongly varies across the six sites. Further studies underpinned by suitable experiments are nonetheless required to further improve the performance of ecosystem models and confirm the validity of these model predictions. This is crucial for a sound understanding of the mechanisms controlling the variability in asymmetric warming effects on ecosystem structure and functioning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Net primary productivity (NPP) response to the various temperature treatments under four environmental change scenarios, including the control, changes in precipitation amount (Pcha), gradual increases in concentrations of atmospheric CO2 (Cinc) and their combinations (Pcha × Cinc).
Data are means ± standard error, differences letters bars indicate significant (p < 0.05) differences between means. (BCF: Boreal coniferous forest; TMF: Temperate mixed forest; DBF: Warm-temperate deciduous broadleaf forest; MStp: Meadow steppe; TStp: Typical steppe; DStp: Desert steppe)
Figure 2
Figure 2. Heterotrophic respiration (Rh) response to the various temperature treatments under four environmental change scenarios, including the control, changes in precipitation amount (Pcha), gradual increases in concentrations of atmospheric CO2 (Cinc) and their combinations (Pcha × Cinc).
Data are means ± standard error, differences letters bars indicate significant (p < 0.05) differences between means. (BCF: Boreal coniferous forest; TMF: Temperate mixed forest; DBF: Warm-temperate deciduous broadleaf forest; MStp: Meadow steppe; TStp: Typical steppe; DStp: Desert steppe)
Figure 3
Figure 3. Net ecosystem production (NEP) response to the various temperature treatments under four environmental change scenarios, including the control, changes in precipitation amount (Pcha), gradual increases in concentrations of atmospheric CO2 (Cinc) and their combinations (Pcha × Cinc).
Data are means ± standard error. (BCF: Boreal coniferous forest; TMF: Temperate mixed forest; DBF: Warm-temperate deciduous broadleaf forest; MStp: Meadow steppe; TStp: Typical steppe; DStp: Desert steppe).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Karl T. R. et al. Asymmetric trends of daily maximum and minimum temperature. B. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 74, 1007–1023 (1993).
    1. Easterling D. R. et al. Maximum and minimum temperature trends for the globe. Science 277, 364–367 (1997).
    1. Vose R. S., Easterling D. R. & Gleason B. Maximum and minimum temperature trends for the globe: An update through 2004. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L23822 (2005).
    1. Zhou L., Dickinson R. E., Dai A. & Dirmeyer P. Detection and attribution of anthropogenic forcing to diurnal temperature range changes from 1950 to 1999: comparing multi-model simulations with observations. Clim. Dynam. 35, 1289–1307 (2010).
    1. Hartmann D. L. et al. [Observations: atmosphere and surface] Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T. F. et al. (eds)] [159–254] (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013).

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources