Title

Climate-Driven Increases in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 1982 to 1999

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Science

Publication Date

6-2003

Volume

300

Issue

5625

First Page

1560

Last Page

1563

Abstract

Recent climatic changes have enhanced plant growth in northern mid-latitudes and high latitudes. However, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of global climatic changes on vegetation productivity has not before been expressed in the context of variable limiting factors to plant growth. We present a global investigation of vegetation responses to climatic changes by analyzing 18 years (1982 to 1999) of both climatic data and satellite observations of vegetation activity. Our results indicate that global changes in climate have eased several critical climatic constraints to plant growth, such that net primary production increased 6% (3.4 petagrams of carbon over 18 years) globally. The largest increase was in tropical ecosystems. Amazon rain forests accounted for 42% of the global increase in net primary production, owing mainly to decreased cloud cover and the resulting increase in solar radiation.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1082750

Rights

© 2003 American Association for the Advancement of Science

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