A submonthly database for detecting changes in vegetation-atmosphere coupling

Jakob Zscheischler*, René Orth, Sonia I. Seneviratne

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Land-atmosphere coupling and changes in coupling regimes are important for making precise future climate predictions and understanding vegetation-climate feedbacks. Here we introduce the Vegetation-Atmosphere Coupling (VAC) index which identifies regions and times of concurrent strong anomalies in temperature and photosynthetic activity. The different classes of the index determine whether a location is currently in an energy-limited or water-limited regime, and its high temporal resolution allows to investigate how these regimes change over time at the regional scale. We show that the VAC index helps to distinguish different evaporative regimes. It can therefore provide indirect information about the local soil moisture state. We further demonstrate how the index can be used to understand processes leading to and occurring during extreme climate events, using the 2010 heat wave in Russia and the 2010 Amazon drought as examples. Key Points The Vegetation-Atmosphere Coupling (VAC) index between FPAR and temperature is introduced The VAC index distinguishes between atmospheric and land-driven evaporative regimes The VAC index indicates strong coupling particularly during droughts and heat waves.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9816-9824
Number of pages9
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume42
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Nov 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • FPAR
  • land-atmosphere coupling

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A submonthly database for detecting changes in vegetation-atmosphere coupling'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this