Controls of Climate Anomalies on Terrestrial Carbon Assimilation in East Asia

Understanding of feedback between climate system and terrestrial ecosystems is of importance to an accurate estimation of global carbon partitioning and cycles in the warmer climate with more anthropogenic carbon in the atmosphere. In this study, a method to improve terrestrial carbon assimilation data, estimated from cloud-contaminated Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery, is suggested and potential associations between inter-annual or intra-annual climate anomalies and carbon assimilation by terrestrial ecosystems in East Asia are examined based on the improved MODIS data. The negative anomalies of Net Primary Productivity (NPP) in 2004 are attributable to reduced solar radiation in northern East Asia, while droughts are responsible for the similar reduction in the NPP in subtropical East Asia. The impacts of seasonal climate anomalies and extreme climatic events on intra-annual variations of terrestrial carbon assimilation in monsoonal East Asia will also be discussed. Acknowledgement: This work was funded by the Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program under Grant RACS 2010-4014.