A unifying principle for global greenness patterns and trends

Abstract

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 metric, depends on carbon allocation to foliage while also controlling photon flux for photosynthesis. Greenness is thus both a driver and an outcome of gross primary production (GPP). An equation with just two (globally) fitted parameters describes annual maximum fAPAR (fAPARmax) 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 the consistent temporal trends among remote-sensing products, as accurately as the best-performing dynamic global vegetation models. Widely observed greening is attributed to the influence of rising carbon dioxide on the light- and water-use efficiencies of GPP, augmented by wetting in some dry regions and warming in high latitudes. Limited regions show browning, attributed to drying.