Publications by authors named "Xiongjie Deng"
Tropical forest canopies are the biosphere's most concentrated atmospheric interface for carbon, water and energy. However, in most Earth System Models, the diverse and heterogeneous tropical forest biome is represented as a largely uniform ecosystem with either a singular or a small number of fixed canopy ecophysiological properties. This situation arises, in part, from a lack of understanding about how and why the functional properties of tropical forest canopies vary geographically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTropical forests dominate terrestrial photosynthesis, yet there are major contradictions in our understanding due to a lack of field studies, especially outside the tropical Americas. A recent field study indicated that West African forests have among the highest forests gross primary productivity (GPP) yet observed, contradicting models that rank them lower than Amazonian forests. Here, we show possible reasons for this data-model mismatch.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - Tropical forests in equatorial Africa are crucial for the global carbon cycle, but there has been insufficient biometric data on their productivity levels (GPP and NPP).
- - A study conducted on 14 one-hectare plots in West Africa revealed that these forests generally exhibit higher productivity and lower carbon use efficiency compared to a similar aridity gradient in the Amazon.
- - The research highlighted that the highest reported NPP and GPP for intact forests occur at a medium-aridity site in Ghana, with findings indicating that existing data models underestimate forest productivity in both regions.
Vegetation as the catalyst for water circulation on global terrestrial ecosystem.
Sci Total Environ
October 2023
Article Synopsis
- Global climate change intensifies the water cycle, resulting in faster evaporation and heavier rainfall, while the growth of vegetation can create competition for water between ecosystems and humans.
- Understanding how evapotranspiration from ecosystems responds to changes in precipitation and vegetation helps predict impacts on energy, water, and carbon budgets under climate change.
- Key findings highlight that vegetation is essential in regulating the water cycle, plays a significant role in the entire cycle, and influences evapotranspiration differently depending on whether an area is vegetated or not.