Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System Models
Satellite-observed Earth’s greening has been reproduced by the latest generation of Earth System Models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Land evapotranspiration (ET) is expected to rise with increasing leaf area index (LAI, Earth’s greening). The res...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/104006 |
| _version_ | 1797748684377554944 |
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| author | Zhenzhong Zeng Zaichun Zhu Xu Lian Laurent Z X Li Anping Chen Xiaogang He Shilong Piao |
| author_facet | Zhenzhong Zeng Zaichun Zhu Xu Lian Laurent Z X Li Anping Chen Xiaogang He Shilong Piao |
| author_sort | Zhenzhong Zeng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Satellite-observed Earth’s greening has been reproduced by the latest generation of Earth System Models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Land evapotranspiration (ET) is expected to rise with increasing leaf area index (LAI, Earth’s greening). The responses of ET play a key role in the land–climate interaction, but they have not been evaluated previously. Here, we assessed the responses of ET to Earth’s greening in these CMIP5 ESMs. We verified a significant and positive response of ET to the modeled greening in each model. However, the responses were not comparable across the ESMs because of an inherent bias in the sensitivity of ET to LAI $(\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}})$ in the models: $\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}$ is precisely and inversely proportional to the trend of LAI $(\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}/\partial t)$ across the ESMs. Constrained by this inversely proportional relationship with the satellite-observed $\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}/\partial t,$ the Earth’s $\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{\text{LAI}}}$ is 0.26 (0.21–0.34) mm d ^−1 per m ^2 m ^−2 , equaling the independent estimates from satellite-derived reconstructions of ET and LAI. Thus, the Earth’s greening-induced acceleration of ET is about 11.4 mm yr ^−1 , accounting for more than 50% of the observed increase in land ET over the last 30 years. To better model the land–climate interaction, $\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}$ in these ESMs should be calibrated. A feasible means is to improve the representation of the magnitude of LAI in these CMIP5 ESMs. |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:08:19Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-40b36cc48efa4a9c9dcbe4a745d7d67d2023-08-09T14:14:34ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262016-01-01111010400610.1088/1748-9326/11/10/104006Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System ModelsZhenzhong Zeng0Zaichun Zhu1Xu Lian2Laurent Z X Li3Anping Chen4Xiaogang He5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7428-0269Shilong Piao6Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of ChinaSino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of ChinaSino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of ChinaLaboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6 , F-75252 Paris, FranceThe Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02540, USADepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University , NJ 08544, USASino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China; Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, People’s Republic of ChinaSatellite-observed Earth’s greening has been reproduced by the latest generation of Earth System Models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Land evapotranspiration (ET) is expected to rise with increasing leaf area index (LAI, Earth’s greening). The responses of ET play a key role in the land–climate interaction, but they have not been evaluated previously. Here, we assessed the responses of ET to Earth’s greening in these CMIP5 ESMs. We verified a significant and positive response of ET to the modeled greening in each model. However, the responses were not comparable across the ESMs because of an inherent bias in the sensitivity of ET to LAI $(\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}})$ in the models: $\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}$ is precisely and inversely proportional to the trend of LAI $(\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}/\partial t)$ across the ESMs. Constrained by this inversely proportional relationship with the satellite-observed $\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}/\partial t,$ the Earth’s $\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{\text{LAI}}}$ is 0.26 (0.21–0.34) mm d ^−1 per m ^2 m ^−2 , equaling the independent estimates from satellite-derived reconstructions of ET and LAI. Thus, the Earth’s greening-induced acceleration of ET is about 11.4 mm yr ^−1 , accounting for more than 50% of the observed increase in land ET over the last 30 years. To better model the land–climate interaction, $\partial {\rm{E}}{\rm{T}}/\partial {\rm{L}}{\rm{A}}{\rm{I}}$ in these ESMs should be calibrated. A feasible means is to improve the representation of the magnitude of LAI in these CMIP5 ESMs.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/104006evapotranspiration sensitivity to greeningEarth greeningleaf area indexland–climate interactionEarth System Modelling |
| spellingShingle | Zhenzhong Zeng Zaichun Zhu Xu Lian Laurent Z X Li Anping Chen Xiaogang He Shilong Piao Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System Models Environmental Research Letters evapotranspiration sensitivity to greening Earth greening leaf area index land–climate interaction Earth System Modelling |
| title | Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System Models |
| title_full | Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System Models |
| title_fullStr | Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System Models |
| title_full_unstemmed | Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System Models |
| title_short | Responses of land evapotranspiration to Earth’s greening in CMIP5 Earth System Models |
| title_sort | responses of land evapotranspiration to earth s greening in cmip5 earth system models |
| topic | evapotranspiration sensitivity to greening Earth greening leaf area index land–climate interaction Earth System Modelling |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/104006 |
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