Evaluation of rangeland gross primary productivity sensitivity potential to drought using ecosystem modelling

Potential gross primary productivity of terrestrial vegetation from 19821990

Monthly mean global green leaf area and photosynthetically active radiation estimated from observations made from several geostationary and polar orbiting satellites were used to estimate potential, (i.e., unstressed) gross primary productivity of terrestrial vegetation from 1982 to 1990. Mean annual gross primary productivity was estimated to be about 179.9 q1.6 Pg C (1 Pg = 1015 g)o Grasses a...

Evaluating the drought response of CMIP5 models using global gross primary productivity, leaf area, precipitation, and soil moisture data

Realistic representation of vegetation’s response to drought is important for understanding terrestrial carbon cycling. We evaluated nine Earth system models from the historical experiment of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 for the response of gross primary productivity (GPP) and leaf area index (LAI) to hydrological anomalies. Hydrological anomalies were characterized by the ...

Rangeland Productivity and Improvement Potential in Highlands of Balochistan, Pakistan

Using Stochastic Ray Tracing to Simulate a Dense Time Series of Gross Primary Productivity

Eddy-covariance carbon dioxide flux measurement is an established method to estimate primary productivity at the forest stand level (typically 10 ha). To validate eddy-covariance estimates, researchers rely on extensive time-series analysis and an assessment of flux contributions made by various ecosystem components at spatial scales much finer than the eddy-covariance footprint. Scaling these ...

Drought on Rangeland Productivity and Animal Performance in Dryland Region of Balochistan, Pakistan

Arid and semi arid areas of Balochistan are characterized by low and erratic rainfall and are prone to drought conditions which normally occur every three to four years. Th e prevailing drought is one of the most severe in its magnitude as annual rain (60-150 mm) has been well below average for a continuous period of four to fi ve years in most parts of highland Balochistan. Results from a long...

Long-term trends in solar irradiance in Ireland and their potential effects on gross primary productivity

Long-term trends in total solar irradiance (Rs), diffuse irradiance (Rd) and pan evaporation (Epan), from various sites in Ireland, were examined over the last 20–50 years. This information was used to estimate the impact of changes in Rs and Rd on gross primary productivity (GPP) of forest, arable and grassland ecosystems. Analysis of the data indicated a significant (P < 0.0001) reduction in ...