College of Letters & Science
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The College of Letters and Science, the largest center for learning, teaching and research at Montana State University, offers students an excellent liberal arts and sciences education in nearly 50 majors, 25 minors and over 25 graduate degrees within the four areas of the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics and social sciences.
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Item Assimilating satellite-based canopy height within an ecosystem model to estimate aboveground forest biomass(2017-07) Joetzjer, Emilie; Pillet, Michiel; Ciais, Philippe; Barbier, N.; Chave, Jerome; Schlund, M.; Maignan, F.; Barichivich, Jonathan; Luyssaert, Sebastiaan; Hérault, Bruno; Poncet, F.; Poulter, BenjaminDespite advances in Earth observation and modeling, estimating tropical biomass remains a challenge. Recent work suggests that integrating satellite measurements of canopy height within ecosystem models is a promising approach to infer biomass. We tested the feasibility of this approach to retrieve aboveground biomass (AGB) at three tropical forest sites by assimilating remotely sensed canopy height derived from a texture analysis algorithm applied to the high-resolution Pleiades imager in the Organizing Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic Ecosystems Canopy (ORCHIDEE-CAN) ecosystem model. While mean AGB could be estimated within 10% of AGB derived from census data in average across sites, canopy height derived from Pleiades product was spatially too smooth, thus unable to accurately resolve large height (and biomass) variations within the site considered. The error budget was evaluated in details, and systematic errors related to the ORCHIDEE-CAN structure contribute as a secondary source of error and could be overcome by using improved allometric equations.Item Regional Carbon Fluxes from Land Use and Land Cover Change in Asia, 1980-2009(2016-07) Calle, Leonardo; Canadell, Josep; Patra, Prabir K.; Ciais, Philippe; Ichii, Kazuhito; Tian, Hui; Kondo, Masayuki; Piao, Shilong; Arneth, Almut; Harper, Anna B.We present a synthesis of the land-atmosphere carbon flux from land use and land cover change (LULCC) in Asia using multiple data sources and paying particular attention to deforestation and forest regrowth fluxes. The data sources are quasi-independent and include the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization-Forest Resource Assessment (FAO-FRA 2015; country-level inventory estimates), the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGARv4.3), the 'Houghton' bookkeeping model that incorporates FAO-FRA data, an ensemble of 8 state-of-the-art Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVM), and 2 recently published independent studies using primarily remote sensing techniques. The estimates are aggregated spatially to Southeast, East, and South Asia and temporally for three decades, 1980–1989, 1990–1999 and 2000–2009. Since 1980, net carbon emissions from LULCC in Asia were responsible for 20%–40% of global LULCC emissions, with emissions from Southeast Asia alone accounting for 15%–25% of global LULCC emissions during the same period. In the 2000s and for all Asia, three estimates (FAO-FRA, DGVM, Houghton) were in agreement of a net source of carbon to the atmosphere, with mean estimates ranging between 0.24 to 0.41 Pg C yr−1, whereas EDGARv4.3 suggested a net carbon sink of −0.17 Pg C yr−1. Three of 4 estimates suggest that LULCC carbon emissions declined by at least 34% in the preceding decade (1990–2000). Spread in the estimates is due to the inclusion of different flux components and their treatments, showing the importance to include emissions from carbon rich peatlands and land management, such as shifting cultivation and wood harvesting, which appear to be consistently underreported.Item Global patterns and climate drivers of water-use efficiency in terrestrial ecosystems deduced from satellite-based datasets and carbon cycle models(2016-03) Sun, Yan; Piao, Shilong; Huang, Mengtian; Ciais, Philippe; Zeng, Zhenzhong; Cheng, Lei; Li, Xiran; Zhang, Xinping; Mao, Jiafu; Peng, Shushi; Poulter, Benjamin; Shi, Xiaoying; Wang, Xuhui; Wang, Ying-Ping; Zeng, HuiAim: To investigate how ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) varies spatially under different climate conditions, and how spatial variations in WUE differ from those of transpiration-based water-use efficiency (WUEt) and transpiration-based inherent water-use efficiency (IWUEt). Location: Global terrestrial ecosystems. Methods: We investigated spatial patterns of WUE using two datasets of gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) and four biosphere model estimates of GPP and ET. Spatial relationships between WUE and climate variables were further explored through regression analyses. Results: Global WUE estimated by two satellite-based datasets is 1.9 ± 0.1 and 1.8 ± 0.6 g C m−2 mm−1 lower than the simulations from four process-based models (2.0 ± 0.3 g C m−2 mm−1) but comparable within the uncertainty of both approaches. In both satellite-based datasets and process models, precipitation is more strongly associated with spatial gradients of WUE for temperate and tropical regions, but temperature dominates north of 50° N. WUE also increases with increasing solar radiation at high latitudes. The values of WUE from datasets and process-based models are systematically higher in wet regions (with higher GPP) than in dry regions. WUEt shows a lower precipitation sensitivity than WUE, which is contrary to leaf- and plant-level observations. IWUEt, the product of WUEt and water vapour deficit, is found to be rather conservative with spatially increasing precipitation, in agreement with leaf- and plant-level measurements. Main conclusions: WUE, WUEt and IWUEt produce different spatial relationships with climate variables. In dry ecosystems, water losses from evaporation from bare soil, uncorrelated with productivity, tend to make WUE lower than in wetter regions. Yet canopy conductance is intrinsically efficient in those ecosystems and maintains a higher IWUEt. This suggests that the responses of each component flux of evapotranspiration should be analysed separately when investigating regional gradients in WUE, its temporal variability and its trends.Item Water-use efficiency & transpiration across European forests during the Anthropocene(2015-05) Frank, D.C.; Poulter, Benjamin; Saurer, M.; Esper, J.; Huntingford, C.; Helle, G.; Treydte, K.; Zimmermann, Niklaus E.; Schleser, G.H.; Ahlstrom, A.; Ciais, PhilippeThe Earth’s carbon and hydrologic cycles are intimately coupled by gas exchange through plant stomata1, 2, 3. However, uncertainties in the magnitude4, 5, 6 and consequences7, 8 of the physiological responses9, 10 of plants to elevated CO2 in natural environments hinders modelling of terrestrial water cycling and carbon storage11. Here we use annually resolved long-term δ13C tree-ring measurements across a European forest network to reconstruct the physiologically driven response of intercellular CO2 (Ci) caused by atmospheric CO2 (Ca) trends. When removing meteorological signals from the δ13C measurements, we find that trees across Europe regulated gas exchange so that for one ppmv atmospheric CO2 increase, Ci increased by ~0.76 ppmv, most consistent with moderate control towards a constant Ci/Ca ratio. This response corresponds to twentieth-century intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) increases of 14 ± 10 and 22 ± 6% at broadleaf and coniferous sites, respectively. An ensemble of process-based global vegetation models shows similar CO2 effects on iWUE trends. Yet, when operating these models with climate drivers reintroduced, despite decreased stomatal opening, 5% increases in European forest transpiration are calculated over the twentieth century. This counterintuitive result arises from lengthened growing seasons, enhanced evaporative demand in a warming climate, and increased leaf area, which together oppose effects of CO2-induced stomatal closure. Our study questions changes to the hydrological cycle, such as reductions in transpiration and air humidity, hypothesized to result from plant responses to anthropogenic emissions.Item Sunlight mediated seasonality in canopy structure & photosynthetic activity of Amazonian rainforests(2015-06) Bi, Jian; Knyazikhin, Yuri; Choi, Sungho; Park, Taejin; Barichivich, Jonathon; Ciais, Philippe; Fu, Rong; Ganguly, Sangram; Hall, Forrest; Hilker, Thomas; Huete, Alfredo; Jones, Matthew; Kimball, John S.; Lyapustin, Alexei; Mottus, Matti; Nemani, Ramakrishna R.; Piao, Shilong; Poulter, Benjamin; Saleska, Scott R.; Saatchi, Sassan S.; Xu, Liang; Zhou, Liming; Myneni, Ranga B.Resolving the debate surrounding the nature and controls of seasonal variation in the structure and metabolism of Amazonian rainforests is critical to understanding their response to climate change. In situ studies have observed higher photosynthetic and evapotranspiration rates, increased litterfall and leaf flushing during the Sunlight-rich dry season. Satellite data also indicated higher greenness level, a proven surrogate of photosynthetic carbon fixation, and leaf area during the dry season relative to the wet season. Some recent reports suggest that rainforests display no seasonal variations and the previous results were satellite measurement artefacts. Therefore, here we re-examine several years of data from three sensors on two satellites under a range of sun positions and satellite measurement geometries and document robust evidence for a seasonal cycle in structure and greenness of wet equatorial Amazonian rainforests. This seasonal cycle is concordant with independent observations of solar radiation. We attribute alternative conclusions to an incomplete study of the seasonal cycle, i.e. the dry season only, and to prognostications based on a biased radiative transfer model. Consequently, evidence of dry season greening in geometry corrected satellite data was ignored and the absence of evidence for seasonal variation in lidar data due to noisy and saturated signals was misinterpreted as evidence of the absence of changes during the dry season. Our results, grounded in the physics of radiative transfer, buttress previous reports of dry season increases in leaf flushing, litterfall, photosynthesis and evapotranspiration in well-hydrated Amazonian rainforests.Item Change in terrestrial ecosystem water-use efficiency over the last three decades(2015-03) Huang, Mengtian; Piao, Shilong; Sun, Yan; Ciais, Philippe; Cheng, Lei; Mao, Jiafu; Poulter, BenjaminDefined as the ratio between gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET), ecosystem-scale water-use efficiency (EWUE) is an indicator of the adjustment of vegetation photosynthesis to water loss. The processes controlling EWUE are complex and reflect both a slow evolution of plants and plant communities as well as fast adjustments of ecosystem functioning to changes of limiting resources. In this study, we investigated EWUE trends from 1982 to 2008 using data-driven models derived from satellite observations and process-oriented carbon cycle models. Our findings suggest positive EWUE trends of 0.0056, 0.0007 and 0.0001 g C m−2 mm−1 yr−1 under the single effect of rising CO2 (‘CO2’), climate change (‘CLIM’) and nitrogen deposition (‘NDEP’), respectively. Global patterns of EWUE trends under different scenarios suggest that (i) EWUE-CO2 shows global increases, (ii) EWUE-CLIM increases in mainly high latitudes and decreases at middle and low latitudes, (iii) EWUE-NDEP displays slight increasing trends except in west Siberia, eastern Europe, parts of North America and central Amazonia. The data-driven MTE model, however, shows a slight decline of EWUE during the same period (−0.0005 g C m−2 mm−1 yr−1), which differs from process-model (0.0064 g C m−2 mm−1 yr−1) simulations with all drivers taken into account. We attribute this discrepancy to the fact that the nonmodeled physiological effects of elevated CO2 reducing stomatal conductance and transpiration (TR) in the MTE model. Partial correlation analysis between EWUE and climate drivers shows similar responses to climatic variables with the data-driven model and the process-oriented models across different ecosystems. Change in water-use efficiency defined from transpiration-based WUEt (GPP/TR) and inherent water-use efficiency (IWUEt, GPP×VPD/TR) in response to rising CO2, climate change, and nitrogen deposition are also discussed. Our analyses will facilitate mechanistic understanding of the carbon–water interactions over terrestrial ecosystems under global change.Item On the ability of a global atmospheric inversion to constrain variations of CO2 fluxes over Amazonia(2015-01) Molina, L.; Broquet, G.; Imbach, P.; Chevallier, Frederic; Poulter, Benjamin; Bonal, D.; Burban, B.; Ramonet, M.; Gatti, L. V.; Wofsy, Steven C.; Munger, J. William; Dlugokencky, E.; Ciais, PhilippeThe exchanges of carbon, water, and energy between the atmosphere and the Amazon Basin have global implications for current and future climate. Here, the global atmospheric inversion system of the Monitoring of Atmospheric Composition and Climate service (MACC) was used to further study the seasonal and interannual variations of biogenic CO2 fluxes in Amazonia. The system assimilated surface measurements of atmospheric CO2 mole fractions made over more than 100 sites over the globe into an atmospheric transport model. This study added four surface stations located in tropical South America, a region poorly covered by CO2 observations. The estimates of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) optimized by the inversion were compared to independent estimates of NEE upscaled from eddy-covariance flux measurements in Amazonia, and against reports on the seasonal and interannual variations of the land sink in South America from the scientific literature. We focused on the impact of the interannual variation of the strong droughts in 2005 and 2010 (due to severe and longer-than-usual dry seasons), and of the extreme rainfall conditions registered in 2009. The spatial variations of the seasonal and interannual variability of optimized NEE were also investigated. While the inversion supported the assumption of strong spatial heterogeneity of these variations, the results revealed critical limitations that prevent global inversion frameworks from capturing the data-driven seasonal patterns of fluxes across Amazonia. In particular, it highlighted issues due to the configuration of the observation network in South America and the lack of continuity of the measurements. However, some robust patterns from the inversion seemed consistent with the abnormal moisture conditions in 2009.Item Sensitivity of global terrestrial carbon cycle dynamics to variability in satellite-observed burned area(2015-02) Poulter, Benjamin; Cadule, Patricia; Chelney, Audrey; Ciais, Philippe; Hodson, Elke L.; Peylin, Phili; Plummer, Stephen; Spessa, Allan; Saatchi, Sassan S.; Yue, Chao; Zimmermann, Niklaus E.Fire plays an important role in terrestrial ecosystems by regulating biogeochemistry, biogeography, and energy budgets, yet despite the importance of fire as an integral ecosystem process, significant advances remain to improve its prognostic representation in carbon cycle models. To recommend and to help prioritize model improvements, this study investigates the sensitivity of a coupled global biogeography and biogeochemistry model, LPJ, to observed burned area measured by three independent satellite-derived products, GFED v3.1, L3JRC, and GlobCarbon. Model variables are compared with benchmarks that include pantropical aboveground biomass, global tree cover, and CO2 and CO trace gas concentrations. Depending on prescribed burned area product, global aboveground carbon stocks varied by 300 Pg C, and woody cover ranged from 50 to 73 Mkm2. Tree cover and biomass were both reduced linearly with increasing burned area, i.e., at regional scales, a 10% reduction in tree cover per 1000 km2, and 0.04-to-0.40 Mg C reduction per 1000 km2. In boreal regions, satellite burned area improved simulated tree cover and biomass distributions, but in savanna regions, model-data correlations decreased. Global net biome production was relatively insensitive to burned area, and the long-term land carbon sink was robust, ~2.5 Pg C yr−1, suggesting that feedbacks from ecosystem respiration compensated for reductions in fuel consumption via fire. CO2 transport provided further evidence that heterotrophic respiration compensated any emission reductions in the absence of fire, with minor differences in modeled CO2 fluxes among burned area products. CO was a more sensitive indicator for evaluating fire emissions, with MODIS-GFED burned area producing CO concentrations largely in agreement with independent observations in high latitudes. This study illustrates how ensembles of burned area data sets can be used to diagnose model structures and parameters for further improvement and also highlights the importance in considering uncertainties and variability in observed burned area data products for model applications.Item A tree-ring perspective on the terrestrial carbon cycle(2014-08) Babst, Flurin; Alexander, M. Ross; Szejner, Paul; Bouriaud, Olivier; Klesse, Stefan; Roden, John; Ciais, Philippe; Poulter, Benjamin; Frank, David; Moore, David J.P.; Trouet, ValerieTree-ring records can provide valuable information to advance our understanding of contemporary terrestrial carbon cycling and to reconstruct key metrics in the decades preceding monitoring data. The growing use of tree rings in carbon-cycle research is being facilitated by increasing recognition of reciprocal benefits among research communities. Yet, basic questions persist regarding what tree rings represent at the ecosystem level, how to optimally integrate them with other data streams, and what related challenges need to be overcome. It is also apparent that considerable unexplored potential exists for tree rings to refine assessments of terres-trial carbon cycling across a range of temporal and spatial domains. Here, we summarize recent advances and highlight promising paths of investigation with respect to (1) growth phenology, (2) forest productivity trends and variability, (3) CO2 fertilization and water-use efficiency, (4) forest disturbances, and (5) comparisons between observational and computational forest productivity estimates. We encourage the integration of tree-ring data: with eddy-covarian measurements to investigate carbon allocation patterns and water-use efficiency; with remotely sensed observations to distinguish the timing of cambial growth and leaf phenology; and with forest inventories to develop continuous, annually-resolved and long-term carbon budgets. In addition, we note the potential of tree-ring records and derivatives thereof to help evaluate the performance of earth system models regarding the simulated magnitude and dynamics of forest carbon uptake, and inform these models about growth responses to (non-)climatic drivers. Such efforts are expected to improve our understanding of forest carbon cycling and place current developments into a long-term perspective.Item 1982–2010 Trends of Light Use Efficiency and Inherent Water Use Efficiency in African vegetation: Sensitivity to Climate and Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations(MDPI, 2014) Traore, Abdoul Khadre; Ciais, Philippe; Vuichard, Nicolas; McBean, Natasha; Dardel, Cecile; Poulter, Benjamin; Piao, Shilong; Fisher, Joshua; Viovy, Nicolas; Jung, Martin; Myneni, Ranga B.Light and water use by vegetation at the ecosystem level, are key components for understanding the carbon and water cycles particularly in regions with high climate variability and dry climates such as Africa. The objective of this study is to examine recent trends over the last 30 years in Light Use Efficiency (LUE) and inherent Water Use Efficiency (iWUE*) for the major biomes of Africa, including their sensitivities to climate and CO2. LUE and iWUE* trends are analyzed using a combination of NOAA-AVHRR NDVI3g and fAPAR3g, and a data-driven model of monthly evapotranspiration and Gross Primary Productivity (based on flux tower measurements and remote sensing fAPAR, yet with no flux tower data in Africa) and the ORCHIDEE (ORganizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic EcosystEms) process-based land surface model driven by variable CO2 and two different gridded climate fields. The iWUE* data product increases by 10%–20% per decade during the 1982–2010 period over the northern savannas (due to positive trend of vegetation productivity) and the central African forest (due to positive trend of vapor pressure deficit). In contrast to the iWUE*, the LUE trends are not statistically significant. The process-based model simulations only show a positive linear trend in iWUE* and LUE over the central African forest. Additionally, factorial model simulations were conducted to attribute trends in iWUE and LUE to climate change and rising CO2 concentrations. We found that the increase of atmospheric CO2 by 52.8 ppm during the period of study explains 30%–50% of the increase in iWUE* and >90% of the LUE trend over the central African forest. The modeled iWUE* trend exhibits a high sensitivity to the climate forcing and environmental conditions, whereas the LUE trend has a smaller sensitivity to the selected climate forcing.