Large seasonal swings in leaf area of Amazon rainforests

Ranga B. Myneni; Wenze Yang; Ramakrishna R. Nemani; Alfredo R. Huete; Robert E. Dickinson; Yuri Knyazikhin; Kamel Didan; Rong Fu; Robinson I. Negrón Juárez; Sasan S. Saatchi; Hirofumi Hashimoto; Kazuhito Ichii; Nikolay V. Shabanov; Bin Tan; Piyachat Ratana; Jeffrey L. Privette; Jeffrey T. Morisette; Eric F. Vermote; David P. Roy; Robert E. Wolfe; Mark A. Friedl; Steven W. Running; Petr Votava; Nazmi El-Saleous; Sadashiva Devadiga; Yin Su; Vincent V. Salomonson

doi:10.1073/pnas.0611338104

Large seasonal swings in leaf area of Amazon rainforests

Ranga B. Myneni, Wenze Yang, Ramakrishna R. Nemani, Alfredo R. Huete, Robert E. Dickinson, Yuri Knyazikhin, Kamel Didan, Rong Fu, Robinson I. Negrón Juárez, Sasan S. Saatchi, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Kazuhito Ichii, Nikolay V. Shabanov, Bin Tan, Piyachat Ratana, Jeffrey L. Privette, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Eric F. Vermote, David P. Roy, Robert E. WolfeMark A. Friedl, Steven W. Running, Petr Votava, Nazmi El-Saleous, Sadashiva Devadiga, Yin Su, Vincent V. Salomonson

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358 Scopus citations

Abstract

Despite early speculation to the contrary, all tropical forests studied to date display seasonal variations in the presence of new leaves, flowers, and fruits. Past studies were focused on the timing of phenological events and their cues but not on the accompanying changes in leaf area that regulate vegetation-atmosphere exchanges of energy, momentum, and mass. Here we report, from analysis of 5 years of recent satellite data, seasonal swings in green leaf area of ≈25% in a majority of the Amazon rainforests. This seasonal cycle is timed to the seasonality of solar radiation in a manner that is suggestive of anticipatory and opportunistic patterns of net leaf flushing during the early to mid part of the light-rich dry season and net leaf abscission during the cloudy wet season. These seasonal swings in leaf area may be critical to initiation of the transition from dry to wet season, seasonal carbon balance between photosynthetic gains and respiratory losses, and litterfall nutrient cycling in moist tropical forests.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	4820-4823
Number of pages	4
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	104
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0611338104
State	Published - Mar 20 2007

Keywords

Remote sensing
Tropical forests phenology
Vegetation climate interaction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

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Myneni, R. B., Yang, W., Nemani, R. R., Huete, A. R., Dickinson, R. E., Knyazikhin, Y., Didan, K., Fu, R., Negrón Juárez, R. I., Saatchi, S. S., Hashimoto, H., Ichii, K., Shabanov, N. V., Tan, B., Ratana, P., Privette, J. L., Morisette, J. T., Vermote, E. F., Roy, D. P., ... Salomonson, V. V. (2007). Large seasonal swings in leaf area of Amazon rainforests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(12), 4820-4823. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0611338104

Myneni, RB, Yang, W, Nemani, RR, Huete, AR, Dickinson, RE, Knyazikhin, Y, Didan, K, Fu, R, Negrón Juárez, RI, Saatchi, SS, Hashimoto, H, Ichii, K, Shabanov, NV, Tan, B, Ratana, P, Privette, JL, Morisette, JT, Vermote, EF, Roy, DP, Wolfe, RE, Friedl, MA, Running, SW, Votava, P, El-Saleous, N, Devadiga, S, Su, Y & Salomonson, VV 2007, 'Large seasonal swings in leaf area of Amazon rainforests', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 104, no. 12, pp. 4820-4823. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0611338104

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title = "Large seasonal swings in leaf area of Amazon rainforests",

abstract = "Despite early speculation to the contrary, all tropical forests studied to date display seasonal variations in the presence of new leaves, flowers, and fruits. Past studies were focused on the timing of phenological events and their cues but not on the accompanying changes in leaf area that regulate vegetation-atmosphere exchanges of energy, momentum, and mass. Here we report, from analysis of 5 years of recent satellite data, seasonal swings in green leaf area of ≈25% in a majority of the Amazon rainforests. This seasonal cycle is timed to the seasonality of solar radiation in a manner that is suggestive of anticipatory and opportunistic patterns of net leaf flushing during the early to mid part of the light-rich dry season and net leaf abscission during the cloudy wet season. These seasonal swings in leaf area may be critical to initiation of the transition from dry to wet season, seasonal carbon balance between photosynthetic gains and respiratory losses, and litterfall nutrient cycling in moist tropical forests.",

keywords = "Remote sensing, Tropical forests phenology, Vegetation climate interaction",

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AU - Myneni, Ranga B.

AU - Yang, Wenze

AU - Nemani, Ramakrishna R.

AU - Huete, Alfredo R.

AU - Dickinson, Robert E.

AU - Knyazikhin, Yuri

AU - Didan, Kamel

AU - Fu, Rong

AU - Negrón Juárez, Robinson I.

AU - Saatchi, Sasan S.

AU - Hashimoto, Hirofumi

AU - Ichii, Kazuhito

AU - Shabanov, Nikolay V.

AU - Tan, Bin

AU - Ratana, Piyachat

AU - Privette, Jeffrey L.

AU - Morisette, Jeffrey T.

AU - Vermote, Eric F.

AU - Roy, David P.

AU - Wolfe, Robert E.

AU - Friedl, Mark A.

AU - Running, Steven W.

AU - Votava, Petr

AU - El-Saleous, Nazmi

AU - Devadiga, Sadashiva

AU - Su, Yin

AU - Salomonson, Vincent V.

PY - 2007/3/20

Y1 - 2007/3/20

N2 - Despite early speculation to the contrary, all tropical forests studied to date display seasonal variations in the presence of new leaves, flowers, and fruits. Past studies were focused on the timing of phenological events and their cues but not on the accompanying changes in leaf area that regulate vegetation-atmosphere exchanges of energy, momentum, and mass. Here we report, from analysis of 5 years of recent satellite data, seasonal swings in green leaf area of ≈25% in a majority of the Amazon rainforests. This seasonal cycle is timed to the seasonality of solar radiation in a manner that is suggestive of anticipatory and opportunistic patterns of net leaf flushing during the early to mid part of the light-rich dry season and net leaf abscission during the cloudy wet season. These seasonal swings in leaf area may be critical to initiation of the transition from dry to wet season, seasonal carbon balance between photosynthetic gains and respiratory losses, and litterfall nutrient cycling in moist tropical forests.

AB - Despite early speculation to the contrary, all tropical forests studied to date display seasonal variations in the presence of new leaves, flowers, and fruits. Past studies were focused on the timing of phenological events and their cues but not on the accompanying changes in leaf area that regulate vegetation-atmosphere exchanges of energy, momentum, and mass. Here we report, from analysis of 5 years of recent satellite data, seasonal swings in green leaf area of ≈25% in a majority of the Amazon rainforests. This seasonal cycle is timed to the seasonality of solar radiation in a manner that is suggestive of anticipatory and opportunistic patterns of net leaf flushing during the early to mid part of the light-rich dry season and net leaf abscission during the cloudy wet season. These seasonal swings in leaf area may be critical to initiation of the transition from dry to wet season, seasonal carbon balance between photosynthetic gains and respiratory losses, and litterfall nutrient cycling in moist tropical forests.

KW - Remote sensing

KW - Tropical forests phenology

KW - Vegetation climate interaction

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Large seasonal swings in leaf area of Amazon rainforests

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