Abstract
The terrestrial biosphere plays a pivotal role in removing carbon from the atmosphere. The removal processes are primarily affected by the presence of extreme temperature in the atmosphere. Little information is available on carbon removal response by the terrestrial biosphere during extreme temperature events over the Indian region. India has witnessed frequent and intense heatwaves in the recent past, and future projections about the frequency of heatwave occurrence suggest a further increase in the changing climate scenario. This study used surface CO2 flux observations and satellite retrieved columnar and mid-tropospheric CO2 concentrations to understand atmospheric CO2 variability and its transport patterns with anomalously high-temperature events such as heatwave conditions over India. Intensification of temperature up to 32 °C has increased the atmosphere-biosphere CO2 fluxes (carbon sink). But further intensification in temperature (> 32–33 °C), like those observed during heatwaves, tends to drive the ecosystem to act as a CO2 source into the atmosphere due to reduced ability to absorb atmospheric CO2. Such excess CO2 fluxes may lead to change in the atmospheric CO2 concentration via atmospheric circulation or the vertical transport of the air masses from the near-surface to the upper levels in the atmosphere. The satellite observed CO2 concentration is elevated by 2–3 ppm during the heatwave conditions over India. The impact of extreme temperature on the biospheric sink capability in the carbon cycle, leading to an increase in the atmospheric CO2 concentration, is one of the significant outcomes of this study.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- GHG:
-
Greenhouse gas
- CO2 :
-
Carbon dioxide
- XCO2 :
-
Columnar carbon dioxide
- NEE:
-
Net Ecosystem Exchange
- PAR:
-
Photosynthetically Active Radiation
- NDVI:
-
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
- ISMR:
-
Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall
- MAM:
-
March April May
- AIRS:
-
Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder
- OCO-2:
-
Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2
- AMSL:
-
Above Mean Sea Level
- VPD:
-
Vapour Pressure Deficit
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Director, IITM, Pune, and MoES, GOI, for facilitating this research work. We would like to thank Prof. Anand Karipot, Dr. Thara Prabhakaran for providing the NEE observations data from the CAIPEEX ground campaign at Barkachha for this study. We would like to thank Prof. Raghu Murtugudde, Dr. Tania Guha, Mr. Santanu Haldar, and Mr. Vineet Singh for discussions and technical help during this study. AIRS data downloaded from (https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets?page=1&source=AQUA%20AIRS,AQUA%20AMSU-A,AQUA%20HSB). Meteorological data downloaded from Era-interim Reanalysis from (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era-interim). Figures 1, 4, 5, and 6 were plotted using Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) (http://cola.gmu.edu/grads/downloads.php). Figures 2 and 3 were plotted using open source software R.
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YKT and JVR conceptualized the study and contributed to drafting the manuscript. SG performed the analysis and written the manuscript. JVR contributed to temperature-related analysis and discussions. PKD, SC, and PG contributed with NEE observation data used in this study. PKD and SC provided inputs for CO2-related discussions in the manuscript.
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Gupta, S., Tiwari, Y.K., Revadekar, J.V. et al. An intensification of atmospheric CO2 concentrations due to the surface temperature extremes in India. Meteorol Atmos Phys 133, 1647–1659 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-021-00834-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-021-00834-w