Quantifying Northern High Latitude Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) Using Carbonyl Sulfide (OCS). Issue 9 (7th September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kuai, Le; Parazoo, Nicholas C.; Shi, Mingjie; Miller, Charles E.; Baker, Ian; Bloom, Anthony A.; Bowman, Kevin; Lee, Meemong; Zeng, Zhao‐Cheng; Commane, Roisin; Montzka, Stephen A.; Berry, Joe; Sweeney, Colm; Miller, John B.; Yung, Yuk L.
• Is Part Of: Global biogeochemical cycles. Volume 36:Issue 9(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-09-07
• Subjects: gross primary productivity -- carbonyl sulfate -- CARVE; Biogeochemical cycles -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 577.1405
• DOI: 10.1029/2021GB007216
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0886-6236

Abstract

Abstract: The northern high latitude (NHL, 40°N to 90°N) is where the second peak region of gross primary productivity (GPP) other than the tropics. The summer NHL GPP is about 80% of the tropical peak, but both regions are still highly uncertain (Norton et al. 2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3069-2019 ). Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) provides an important proxy for photosynthetic carbon uptake. Here we optimize the OCS plant uptake fluxes across the NHL by fitting atmospheric concentration simulation with the GEOS‐CHEM global transport model to the aircraft profiles acquired over Alaska during NASA's Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (2012–2015). We use the empirical biome‐specific linear relationship between OCS plant uptake flux and GPP to derive the six plant uptake OCS fluxes from different GPP data. Such GPP‐based fluxes are used to drive the concentration simulations. We evaluate the simulations against the independent observations at two ground sites of Alaska. The optimized OCS fluxes suggest the NHL plant uptake OCS flux of −247 Gg S year −1, about 25% stronger than the ensemble mean of the six GPP‐based OCS fluxes. GPP‐based OCS fluxes systematically underestimate the peak growing season across the NHL, while a subset of models predict early start of season in Alaska, consistent with previous studies of net ecosystem exchange. The OCS optimized GPP of 34 PgC yr −1 for NHL is also about 25% more than the ensembles mean from six GPP data. Further work is needed to fully understand the environmental and biotic drivers and quantify their rate of photosynthetic carbon uptake in Arctic ecosystems. Key Points: Carbonyl sulfide is shown an useful proxy to constrain gross primary productivity in regional and global scales This study used Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment observations and GEOSCHEM modeling of carbonyl sulfide to benchmark the multi‐model gross primary productivity at norther high latitude