TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle
T2 - Concepts, processes and potential future impacts
AU - Frank, Dorothea
AU - Reichstein, Markus
AU - Bahn, Michael
AU - Thonicke, Kirsten
AU - Frank, David
AU - Mahecha, Miguel D.
AU - Smith, Pete
AU - van der Velde, Marijn
AU - Vicca, Sara
AU - Babst, Flurin
AU - Beer, Christian
AU - Buchmann, Nina
AU - Canadell, Josep G.
AU - Ciais, Philippe
AU - Cramer, Wolfgang
AU - Ibrom, Andreas
AU - Miglietta, Franco
AU - Poulter, Ben
AU - Rammig, Anja
AU - Seneviratne, Sonia I.
AU - Walz, Ariane
AU - Wattenbach, Martin
AU - Zavala, Miguel A.
AU - Zscheischler, Jakob
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The Authors.
PY - 2015/8/1
Y1 - 2015/8/1
N2 - Extreme droughts, heat waves, frosts, precipitation, wind storms and other climate extremes may impact the structure, composition and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, and thus carbon cycling and its feedbacks to the climate system. Yet, the interconnected avenues through which climate extremes drive ecological and physiological processes and alter the carbon balance are poorly understood. Here, we review the literature on carbon cycle relevant responses of ecosystems to extreme climatic events. Given that impacts of climate extremes are considered disturbances, we assume the respective general disturbance-induced mechanisms and processes to also operate in an extreme context. The paucity of well-defined studies currently renders a quantitative meta-analysis impossible, but permits us to develop a deductive framework for identifying the main mechanisms (and coupling thereof) through which climate extremes may act on the carbon cycle. We find that ecosystem responses can exceed the duration of the climate impacts via lagged effects on the carbon cycle. The expected regional impacts of future climate extremes will depend on changes in the probability and severity of their occurrence, on the compound effects and timing of different climate extremes, and on the vulnerability of each land-cover type modulated by management. Although processes and sensitivities differ among biomes, based on expert opinion, we expect forests to exhibit the largest net effect of extremes due to their large carbon pools and fluxes, potentially large indirect and lagged impacts, and long recovery time to regain previous stocks. At the global scale, we presume that droughts have the strongest and most widespread effects on terrestrial carbon cycling. Comparing impacts of climate extremes identified via remote sensing vs. ground-based observational case studies reveals that many regions in the (sub-)tropics are understudied. Hence, regional investigations are needed to allow a global upscaling of the impacts of climate extremes on global carbon-climate feedbacks.
AB - Extreme droughts, heat waves, frosts, precipitation, wind storms and other climate extremes may impact the structure, composition and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, and thus carbon cycling and its feedbacks to the climate system. Yet, the interconnected avenues through which climate extremes drive ecological and physiological processes and alter the carbon balance are poorly understood. Here, we review the literature on carbon cycle relevant responses of ecosystems to extreme climatic events. Given that impacts of climate extremes are considered disturbances, we assume the respective general disturbance-induced mechanisms and processes to also operate in an extreme context. The paucity of well-defined studies currently renders a quantitative meta-analysis impossible, but permits us to develop a deductive framework for identifying the main mechanisms (and coupling thereof) through which climate extremes may act on the carbon cycle. We find that ecosystem responses can exceed the duration of the climate impacts via lagged effects on the carbon cycle. The expected regional impacts of future climate extremes will depend on changes in the probability and severity of their occurrence, on the compound effects and timing of different climate extremes, and on the vulnerability of each land-cover type modulated by management. Although processes and sensitivities differ among biomes, based on expert opinion, we expect forests to exhibit the largest net effect of extremes due to their large carbon pools and fluxes, potentially large indirect and lagged impacts, and long recovery time to regain previous stocks. At the global scale, we presume that droughts have the strongest and most widespread effects on terrestrial carbon cycling. Comparing impacts of climate extremes identified via remote sensing vs. ground-based observational case studies reveals that many regions in the (sub-)tropics are understudied. Hence, regional investigations are needed to allow a global upscaling of the impacts of climate extremes on global carbon-climate feedbacks.
KW - Carbon cycle
KW - Climate change
KW - Climate extremes
KW - Climate variability
KW - Disturbance
KW - Terrestrial ecosystems
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U2 - 10.1111/gcb.12916
DO - 10.1111/gcb.12916
M3 - Review article
C2 - 25752680
AN - SCOPUS:84937518199
SN - 1354-1013
VL - 21
SP - 2861
EP - 2880
JO - Global change biology
JF - Global change biology
IS - 8
ER -