Montane ecosystem productivity responds more to global circulation patterns than climatic trends
Desai, Ankur (University of Wisconsin-Madison. Departament of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences)
Wohlfahrt, Georg (Universität Innsbruck. Institut für Ökologie)
Zeeman, M. J. (Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie)
Katata, G. (Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie)
Eugster, W. (ETH Zürich. Institut für Agrarwissenschaften)
Montagnani, L. (Libera università di Bolzano. Facultà di scienze e tecnologie)
Gianelle, Daminao (Fondazione Edmund Mach. Centro Ricerca e Innovazione. Dipartimento agroecosistemi sostenibili e biorisorse)
Mauder, Matthias (Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie)
Schmid, Hans Peter (Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie)

Date:	2016
Abstract:	Regional ecosystem productivity is highly sensitive to inter-annual climate variability, both within and outside the primary carbon uptake period. However, Earth system models lack sufficient spatial scales and ecosystem processes to resolve how these processes may change in a warming climate. Here, we show, how for the European Alps, mid-latitude Atlantic ocean winter circulation anomalies drive high-altitude summer forest and grassland productivity, through feedbacks among orographic wind circulation patterns, snowfall, winter and spring temperatures, and vegetation activity. Therefore, to understand future global climate change influence to regional ecosystem productivity, Earth systems models need to focus on improvements towards topographic downscaling of changes in regional atmospheric circulation patterns and to lagged responses in vegetation dynamics to non-growing season climate anomalies.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Foehn ; Atmospheric circulation ; Alpine ecology ; Ecosystem carbon uptake ; Climatic change and variability
Published in:	Environmental research letters, Vol. 11, no. 2 (Feb. 2016) , ISSN 1748-9326

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/024013
PMID: 28458719

10 p, 2.2 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals) > Imbalance-P
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