The effects of teleconnections on carbon fluxes of global terrestrial ecosystems

International audienceLarge-scale atmospheric circulation patterns (i.e., teleconnections) influence global climate variability patterns and can be studied to provide a simple framework for relating the complex response of ecosystems to climate. This study analyzes the effects of 15 major teleconnections on terrestrial ecosystem carbon fluxes during 1951-2012 using an ensemble of nine dynamic global vegetation models. We map the global pattern of the dominant teleconnections and find that these teleconnections significantly affect gross primary productivity variations over more than 82.1% of the global vegetated area, through mediating the global temperature and regional precipitation and cloud cover. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation are strongly correlated with global, hemispherical, and continental carbon fluxes and climatic variables, while the Northern Hemisphere teleconnections have only regional influences. Further research regarding the interactions among the teleconnections and the nonstationarity of the relationship between teleconnections and carbon fluxes is needed