Amplification of ENSO-driven vegetation variability at decadal and longer timescales

Fahrenbach, Nora L. S.; Wills, Robert C. J.

doi:10.5194/esd-17-987-2026

Articles | Volume 17, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-987-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-987-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 4

Research article

|

13 Jul 2026

Research article |

| 13 Jul 2026

Amplification of ENSO-driven vegetation variability at decadal and longer timescales

Nora L. S. Fahrenbach and Robert C. J. Wills

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-987-2026-supplement

Data sets

The ETH Zurich CMIP6 next generation archive: technical documentation L. Brunner et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3734128

Model code and software

Auxiliary code for Fahrenbach and Wills 2026 - "Amplification of ENSO-driven vegetation variability at decadal and longer timescales'' N. L. S. Fahrenbach and R. C. J. Wills https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17950444

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Short summary

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) drives short-term global plant changes, but its influence on decadal changes is not fully known. Using global climate models, we found that plants show pronounced ENSO-driven changes on decadal and longer timescales. Slow plant responses are influenced by soil water content and plant dynamics but only have a weak effect on the plant’s net carbon uptake. Our work shows that vegetation memory could be an important source of decadal climate predictability.