Atmospheric teleconnection influence on North American land surface phenology
Name:
Dannenberg_2018_Environ._Res._ ...
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Final Published version
Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Sch Nat Resources & EnvironmIssue Date
2018-03Keywords
land surface phenologyremote sensing
El Nino Southern Oscillation
teleconnection interactions
North Atlantic Oscillation
Pacific North American pattern
spring onset
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IOP PUBLISHING LTDCitation
Matthew P Dannenberg et al 2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 034029Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERSRights
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Short-term forecasts of vegetation activity are currently not well constrained due largely to our lack of understanding of coupled climate-vegetation dynamics mediated by complex interactions between atmospheric teleconnection patterns. Using ecoregion-scale estimates of North American vegetation activity inferred from remote sensing (1982-2015), we examined seasonal and spatial relationships between land surface phenology and the atmospheric components of five teleconnection patterns over the tropical Pacific, north Pacific, and north Atlantic. Using a set of regression experiments, we also tested for interactions among these teleconnection patterns and assessed predictability of vegetation activity solely based on knowledge of atmospheric teleconnection indices. Autumn-to-winter composites of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) were strongly correlated with start of growing season timing, especially in the Pacific Northwest. The two leading modes of north Pacific variability (the Pacific-North American, PNA, and West Pacific patterns) were significantly correlated with start of growing season timing across much of southern Canada and the upper Great Lakes. Regression models based on these Pacific teleconnections were skillful predictors of spring phenology across an east-west swath of temperate and boreal North America, between 40 degrees N-60 degrees N. While the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) was not strongly correlated with start of growing season timing on its own, we found compelling evidence of widespread NAO-SOI and NAO-PNA interaction effects. These results suggest that knowledge of atmospheric conditions over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans increases the predictability of North American spring phenology. A more robust consideration of the complexity of the atmospheric circulation system, including interactions across multiple ocean basins, is an important step towards accurate forecasts of vegetation activity.ISSN
1748-9326Version
Final published versionSponsors
NSF Paleo Perspectives on Climate Change (P2C2) grant [1304422]Additional Links
http://stacks.iop.org/1748-9326/13/i=3/a=034029?key=crossref.f29e64db7ef6e3b6a1931ee8bab60945ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1088/1748-9326/aaa85a