Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit reduces global vegetation growth

Atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a critical variable in determining plant photosynthesis. Synthesis of four global climate datasets reveals a sharp increase of VPD after the late 1990s. In response, the vegetation greening trend indicated by a satellite-derived vegetation index (GIMMS3g), which was evident before the late 1990s, was subsequently stalled or reversed. Terrestrial gross primary production derived from two satellite-based models (revised EC-LUE and MODIS) exhibits persistent and widespread decreases after the late 1990s due to increased VPD, which offset the positive CO2 fertilization effect. Six Earth system models have consistently projected continuous increases of VPD throughout the current century. Our results highlight that the impacts of VPD on vegetation growth should be adequately considered to assess ecosystem responses to future climate conditions.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links

Related Dataset #1 : obspack_co2_1_GLOBALVIEW-CO2_2013_v1.0.4_2013-12-23
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Yuan, W.
Zheng, Y.
Piao, S.
Ciais, P.
Lombardozzi, Danica
Wang, Y.
Ryu, Y.
Chen, G.
Dong, W.
Hu, Z.
Jain, A. K.
Jiang, C.
Kato, E.
Li, S.
Lienert, S.
LIU, S.
Nabel, J. E.
Qin, Z.
Quine, T.
Sitch, S.
Smith, W. K.
Wang, F.
Wu, C.
Xiao, Z.
Yang, S.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2019-08-14T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:26:19.645078
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:22764
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Yuan, W., Zheng, Y., Piao, S., Ciais, P., Lombardozzi, Danica, Wang, Y., Ryu, Y., Chen, G., Dong, W., Hu, Z., Jain, A. K., Jiang, C., Kato, E., Li, S., Lienert, S., LIU, S., Nabel, J. E., Qin, Z., Quine, T., Sitch, S., Smith, W. K., Wang, F., Wu, C., Xiao, Z., Yang, S.. (2019). Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit reduces global vegetation growth. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7cn76jd. Accessed 14 August 2025.

Harvest Source