A unifying principle for global greenness patterns and trends

Cai, W., Zhu, Z., Harrison, S. P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5687-1903, Ryu, Y., Wang, H., Zhou, B. and Prentice, I. C. (2025) A unifying principle for global greenness patterns and trends. Communications Earth & Environment, 6. 19. ISSN 2662-4435 doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-01992-0

Abstract/Summary

Vegetation cover regulates the exchanges of energy, water and carbon between land and atmosphere. Remotely-sensed fractional absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR), a land-surface greenness measure, depends on carbon allocation to foliage while also controlling photon flux for photosynthesis. Here we use an equation with just two globally fitted parameters to describe annual maximum fAPAR as the smaller of a water-limited value transpiring a constant fraction of annual precipitation, and an energy-limited value maximizing annual plant growth. This minimalist description reproduces global greenness patterns and temporal trends in remote-sensing data, comparable to the best-performing dynamic global vegetation models. Widely observed greening is attributed principally to the influence of rising carbon dioxide on the light- and water-use efficiencies of photosynthesis; limited browning regions are attributed to drying. This research provides one key component of ecosystem function as a step towards more robust foundations for new-generation land ecosystem models.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/122098
Identification Number/DOI	10.1038/s43247-025-01992-0
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Publisher	Springer Nature
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