Gross primary production variations dominate the response of Indian terrestrial carbon fluxes to global climatic phenomena
A better understanding of country-scale anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and natural flux estimates and the carbon-climate feedback, is critical in formulating national climate policies to attain net zero emissions. Here, we use the atmospheric carbon dioxide column observations from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite to unravel the response of the Indian land biosphere to global climatic phenomena such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole. An ensemble of global flux inverse models constrained by satellite observations indicates a reduction in carbon uptake by the Indian land biosphere during El Niño and an enhanced uptake during La Niña and positive Indian Ocean Dipole events. We find that the large Gross Primary Production variations, as compared to total ecosystem respiration, determined the response of flux variability to climatic phenomena. The carbon-climate constraints imposed by satellite observations over India help elucidate how biospheric uptake may offset anthropogenic emissions in the future. Carbon dioxide uptake by Indian terrestrial biosphere is reduced in El Niño and enhanced in La Niña and positive Indian Ocean Dipole events, mainly due to gross primary production variations, according to satellite-based atmospheric carbon dioxide column observations
Authors
- Frédéric Chevallier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4327-3813)
- Sourish Basu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8605-5894)
- Sajeev Philip (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5456-7593)
- Scot M. Miller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4462-8126)
- Jingfeng Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0622-6903)
- D. F. Baker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4144-4946)
- Fei Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1744-7565)
- Emili Singha Roy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0200-5737)
- Matthew S. Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6010-7497)
- Ning Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7489-7629)
- Xing Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2206-0429)
- Junjie Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-6594)
- Zhiqiang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2982-8381)
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of New Hampshire (US)
- Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IN)
- Nanjing University (CN)
- Colorado State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Earth & Environment
- Published
- 2025-11-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03013-6
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
- Ames Research Center