Contrasting terrestrial carbon cycle responses to the 1997/98 and 2015/16 extreme El Niño events

Wang, Jun; Zeng, Ning; Wang, Meirong; Jiang, Fei; Wang, Hengmao; Jiang, Ziqiang

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1-2018

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

Research article

|

11 Jan 2018

Research article |

| 11 Jan 2018

Contrasting terrestrial carbon cycle responses to the 1997/98 and 2015/16 extreme El Niño events

Jun Wang, Ning Zeng, Meirong Wang, Fei Jiang, Hengmao Wang, and Ziqiang Jiang

Data sets

CAMS and MACC inversions ECMWF http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/

CarbonTracker datasets ESRL https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/carbontracker/

Mauna Loa monthly CO2 records ESRL https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/data.html

Satellite SIF datasets GSFC https://avdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/satellite/MetOp/GOME_F/

MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) datasets LP DAAC https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/dataset_discovery/modis/modis_products_table/mod13c2_v006

ERSST4 Niño3.4 index NOAA http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/data/indices/ersst4.nino.mth.81-10.ascii

Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 4.1 (GFEDv4), ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA J. T. Randerson, G. R. van der Werf, L. Giglio, G. J. Collatz, and P. S. Kasibhatla https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1293

Short summary

Behaviors of terrestrial ecosystems differ in different El Niños. We analyze terrestrial carbon cycle responses to two extreme El Niños (2015/16 and 1997/98), and find large differences. We find that global land–atmosphere carbon flux anomaly was about 2 times smaller in 2015/16 than in 1997/98 event, without the obvious lagged response. Then we illustrate the climatic and biological mechanisms of the different terrestrial carbon cycle responses in 2015/16 and 1997/98 El Niños regionally.