The role of climate variability in the inter-annual variation of terrestrial net primary production (NPP)

Eleven years data set of global net primary production (NPP) and long-term climatic and land use data were used to explore the patterns of inter-annual variability of terrestrial NPP in relation to potential causal factors. Global anomalies in temperature, precipitation and cloud cover were found to significantly contribute in different ways and magnitudes to the variability of NPP of global ecosystems particularly forests and grasslands. El Niño/La Niña events represented an important factor affecting forests, woodlands and grasslands while deforestation was found to largely contribute to the NPP variability of tropical forests. Regionally, NPP variability is related to variation of precipitation in the tropics but is related to both variation and annual mean of temperature and cloud cover in the mid-northern latitudes. We hypothesized that the increase in variability of potential causal factor(s) will provoke more declines of NPP in the tropics but will yield more pulses or at least maintain a mean NPP in the mid-northern latitudes.