Widespread decrease in temperature control of northern plant productivity

Climate warming has enhanced plant productivity in the northern hemisphere (NH) extratropics (>30N), and contributed to the widespread greening trend since the 1980s. With continuous warming, however, it is unclear how the relationship between temperature and plant productivity may change, which may fundamentally impact the carbon-climate feedback in the Earth system. Here, we used the temperature sensitivity of greening trends ( = NDVI/T) to quantify the temperature controls on productivity with a multi-source dataset, and analyzed how is related to climate, vegetation, and disturbance history. We found a widespread decline in the temperature control of northern plant productivity over the last three decades. The decline is more pronounced in warmer and drier biomes. In addition, decreased more dramatically in months with larger water stress. Our results raise concern that continued warming may stall or reverse the NH vegetation greening trend and negatively impact the global land sink for atmospheric CO2 emissions.