William K.Smith

Recent global decline of CO ₂ fertilization effects on vegetation photosynthesis

Science · 2020-12-10 · 666 citations

A decline in the carbon fertilization effect One source of uncertainty in climate science is how the carbon fertilization effect (CFE) will contribute to mitigation of anthropogenic climate change. Wang et al. explored the temporal dynamics of CFE on vegetation photosynthesis at the global scale. There has been a decline over recent decades in the contribution of CFE to vegetation photosynthesis, perhaps owing to the limiting effects of plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. This decli…

Observed increasing water constraint on vegetation growth over the last three decades

Nature Communications · 2021-06-18 · 619 citations

Abstract Despite the growing interest in predicting global and regional trends in vegetation productivity in response to a changing climate, changes in water constraint on vegetation productivity (i.e., water limitations on vegetation growth) remain poorly understood. Here we conduct a comprehensive evaluation of changes in water constraint on vegetation growth in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere between 1982 and 2015. We document a significant increase in vegetation water constraint over t…

Satellite solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and near-infrared reflectance capture complementary aspects of dryland vegetation productivity dynamics

Remote Sensing of Environment · 2021 · 100 citations

Globally Consistent Patterns of Asynchrony in Vegetation Phenology Derived From Optical, Microwave, and Fluorescence Satellite Data

Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences · 2020 · 85 citations

Key Points Asynchrony in phenology metrics derived from optical, microwave, and fluorescence satellite data increases as the growing season progresses Globally, peak‐/end‐of‐season phenology metrics are temporally organized such that fluorescence < optical < microwave Integration of these independent satellite‐based indices reveals vegetation senescence as a prolonged, complex, and well‐organized process

Large global-scale vegetation sensitivity to daily rainfall variability

Nature · 2024-12-11 · 63 citations