Synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data in assessing the responses of ecosystem productivity to the 2018 U.S. drought

Xing Li; Jingfeng Xiao; John S. Kimball; Rolf H. Reichle; Russell L. Scott; Marcy E. Litvak; Gil Bohrer; Christian Frankenberg

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2020.112062

Synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data in assessing the responses of ecosystem productivity to the 2018 U.S. drought

Xing Li
, Jingfeng Xiao
, John S. Kimball
, Rolf H. Reichle
, Russell L. Scott
, Marcy E. Litvak
, Gil Bohrer
, Christian Frankenberg

Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

61 Scopus citations

Abstract

Soil moisture and gross primary productivity (GPP) estimates from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) provide new opportunities for understanding the relationship between soil moisture and terrestrial photosynthesis over large regions. Here we explored the potential of the synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 based data for monitoring the responses of ecosystem productivity to drought. We used complementary observational information on root-zone soil moisture and GPP (9 km) from SMAP and fine-resolution SIF (0.05^°; GOSIF) derived from OCO-2 SIF soundings. We compared the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of anomalies of these variables over the conterminous U.S. during the 2018 drought, and examined to what extent they could characterize the drought-induced variations of flux tower GPP and crop yield data. Our results showed that SMAP GPP and GOSIF, both freely available online, could well capture the spatial extent and dynamics of the impacts of drought indicated by the U.S. Drought Monitor maps and the SMAP root-zone soil moisture deficit. Over the U.S. Southwest, monthly anomalies of soil moisture showed significant positive correlations with those of SMAP GPP (R² = 0.44, p < 0.001) and GOSIF (R² = 0.76, p < 0.001), demonstrating strong water availability constraints on plant productivity across dryland ecosystems. We further found that SMAP GPP and GOSIF captured the impact of drought on tower GPP and crop yield. Our results suggest that synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data products can reveal the drought evolution and its impact on ecosystem productivity and carbon uptake at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and demonstrate the value of SMAP and OCO-2 for studying ecosystem function, carbon cycling, and climate change.

Original language	English
Article number	112062
Journal	Remote Sensing of Environment
Volume	251
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.112062
State	Published - Dec 15 2020

Funding

This study was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (PI Jingfeng Xiao: Climate Indicators and Data Products for Future National Climate Assessments - Grant No. NNX16AG61G and Carbon Cycle Science Program - Grant No. NNX14AJ18G) and National Science Foundation (NSF) (PI Jingfeng Xiao: Macrosystem Biology & NEON-Enabled Science program - Grant No. DEB-2017870). The contribution of J.S.K. was supported by NASA Grant No. NNH15ZDA001N and NNX15AT74A. R.R. was supported by the SMAP project. We thank the OCO-2 and SMAP science teams for making OCO-2 SIF and SMAP root-zone soil moisture and GPP data available and USDA-NASS for providing crop yield data. We also thank the principal investigators and other research personnel of the four AmeriFlux sites for making the flux data available. Funding for AmeriFlux data resources was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. We thank the five anonymous reviewers for their two rounds of insightful and constructive comments on our manuscript. This study was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (PI Jingfeng Xiao: Climate Indicators and Data Products for Future National Climate Assessments - Grant No. NNX16AG61G and Carbon Cycle Science Program - Grant No. NNX14AJ18G ) and National Science Foundation (NSF) (PI Jingfeng Xiao: Macrosystem Biology & NEON-Enabled Science program - Grant No. DEB-2017870 ). The contribution of J.S.K. was supported by NASA Grant No. NNH15ZDA001N and NNX15AT74A . R.R. was supported by the SMAP project. We thank the OCO-2 and SMAP science teams for making OCO-2 SIF and SMAP root-zone soil moisture and GPP data available and USDA-NASS for providing crop yield data. We also thank the principal investigators and other research personnel of the four AmeriFlux sites for making the flux data available. Funding for AmeriFlux data resources was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. We thank the five anonymous reviewers for their two rounds of insightful and constructive comments on our manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
NNX14AJ18G
DEB-2017870, 1655499, NNH15ZDA001N, NNX15AT74A
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	NNX16AG61G

Keywords

Carbon cycle
Crop yield
Dryland
Enhanced vegetation index
GOSIF
Gross primary production
Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2
Soil Moisture Active Passive
Soil moisture
Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence
Water stress

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.rse.2020.112062

Cite this

@article{5481ceacbc8c4246a5a75a45d7d6dcb4,

title = "Synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data in assessing the responses of ecosystem productivity to the 2018 U.S. drought",

abstract = "Soil moisture and gross primary productivity (GPP) estimates from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) provide new opportunities for understanding the relationship between soil moisture and terrestrial photosynthesis over large regions. Here we explored the potential of the synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 based data for monitoring the responses of ecosystem productivity to drought. We used complementary observational information on root-zone soil moisture and GPP (9 km) from SMAP and fine-resolution SIF (0.05°; GOSIF) derived from OCO-2 SIF soundings. We compared the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of anomalies of these variables over the conterminous U.S. during the 2018 drought, and examined to what extent they could characterize the drought-induced variations of flux tower GPP and crop yield data. Our results showed that SMAP GPP and GOSIF, both freely available online, could well capture the spatial extent and dynamics of the impacts of drought indicated by the U.S. Drought Monitor maps and the SMAP root-zone soil moisture deficit. Over the U.S. Southwest, monthly anomalies of soil moisture showed significant positive correlations with those of SMAP GPP (R2 = 0.44, p < 0.001) and GOSIF (R2 = 0.76, p < 0.001), demonstrating strong water availability constraints on plant productivity across dryland ecosystems. We further found that SMAP GPP and GOSIF captured the impact of drought on tower GPP and crop yield. Our results suggest that synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data products can reveal the drought evolution and its impact on ecosystem productivity and carbon uptake at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and demonstrate the value of SMAP and OCO-2 for studying ecosystem function, carbon cycling, and climate change.",

keywords = "Carbon cycle, Crop yield, Dryland, Enhanced vegetation index, GOSIF, Gross primary production, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, Soil Moisture Active Passive, Soil moisture, Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, Water stress",

author = "Xing Li and Jingfeng Xiao and Kimball, \{John S.\} and Reichle, \{Rolf H.\} and Scott, \{Russell L.\} and Litvak, \{Marcy E.\} and Gil Bohrer and Christian Frankenberg",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Inc.",

year = "2020",

month = dec,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1016/j.rse.2020.112062",

language = "English",

volume = "251",

journal = "Remote Sensing of Environment",

issn = "0034-4257",

publisher = "Elsevier Inc.",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data in assessing the responses of ecosystem productivity to the 2018 U.S. drought

AU - Li, Xing

AU - Xiao, Jingfeng

AU - Kimball, John S.

AU - Reichle, Rolf H.

AU - Scott, Russell L.

AU - Litvak, Marcy E.

AU - Bohrer, Gil

AU - Frankenberg, Christian

PY - 2020/12/15

Y1 - 2020/12/15

N2 - Soil moisture and gross primary productivity (GPP) estimates from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) provide new opportunities for understanding the relationship between soil moisture and terrestrial photosynthesis over large regions. Here we explored the potential of the synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 based data for monitoring the responses of ecosystem productivity to drought. We used complementary observational information on root-zone soil moisture and GPP (9 km) from SMAP and fine-resolution SIF (0.05°; GOSIF) derived from OCO-2 SIF soundings. We compared the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of anomalies of these variables over the conterminous U.S. during the 2018 drought, and examined to what extent they could characterize the drought-induced variations of flux tower GPP and crop yield data. Our results showed that SMAP GPP and GOSIF, both freely available online, could well capture the spatial extent and dynamics of the impacts of drought indicated by the U.S. Drought Monitor maps and the SMAP root-zone soil moisture deficit. Over the U.S. Southwest, monthly anomalies of soil moisture showed significant positive correlations with those of SMAP GPP (R2 = 0.44, p < 0.001) and GOSIF (R2 = 0.76, p < 0.001), demonstrating strong water availability constraints on plant productivity across dryland ecosystems. We further found that SMAP GPP and GOSIF captured the impact of drought on tower GPP and crop yield. Our results suggest that synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data products can reveal the drought evolution and its impact on ecosystem productivity and carbon uptake at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and demonstrate the value of SMAP and OCO-2 for studying ecosystem function, carbon cycling, and climate change.

AB - Soil moisture and gross primary productivity (GPP) estimates from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) provide new opportunities for understanding the relationship between soil moisture and terrestrial photosynthesis over large regions. Here we explored the potential of the synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 based data for monitoring the responses of ecosystem productivity to drought. We used complementary observational information on root-zone soil moisture and GPP (9 km) from SMAP and fine-resolution SIF (0.05°; GOSIF) derived from OCO-2 SIF soundings. We compared the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of anomalies of these variables over the conterminous U.S. during the 2018 drought, and examined to what extent they could characterize the drought-induced variations of flux tower GPP and crop yield data. Our results showed that SMAP GPP and GOSIF, both freely available online, could well capture the spatial extent and dynamics of the impacts of drought indicated by the U.S. Drought Monitor maps and the SMAP root-zone soil moisture deficit. Over the U.S. Southwest, monthly anomalies of soil moisture showed significant positive correlations with those of SMAP GPP (R2 = 0.44, p < 0.001) and GOSIF (R2 = 0.76, p < 0.001), demonstrating strong water availability constraints on plant productivity across dryland ecosystems. We further found that SMAP GPP and GOSIF captured the impact of drought on tower GPP and crop yield. Our results suggest that synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data products can reveal the drought evolution and its impact on ecosystem productivity and carbon uptake at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and demonstrate the value of SMAP and OCO-2 for studying ecosystem function, carbon cycling, and climate change.

KW - Carbon cycle

KW - Crop yield

KW - Dryland

KW - Enhanced vegetation index

KW - GOSIF

KW - Gross primary production

KW - Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2

KW - Soil Moisture Active Passive

KW - Soil moisture

KW - Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence

KW - Water stress

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85090762793

U2 - 10.1016/j.rse.2020.112062

DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2020.112062

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85090762793

SN - 0034-4257

VL - 251

JO - Remote Sensing of Environment

JF - Remote Sensing of Environment

M1 - 112062

ER -

Synergistic use of SMAP and OCO-2 data in assessing the responses of ecosystem productivity to the 2018 U.S. drought

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this