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Science 6 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5625, pp. 1560 - 1563
DOI: 10.1126/science.1082750
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Reports

Climate-Driven Increases in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 1982 to 1999

Ramakrishna R. Nemani,1*{dagger} Charles D. Keeling,2 Hirofumi Hashimoto,1,3 William M. Jolly,1 Stephen C. Piper,2 Compton J. Tucker,4 Ranga B. Myneni,5 Steven W. Running1

Recent climatic changes have enhanced plant growth in northern mid-latitudes and high latitudes. However, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of global climatic changes on vegetation productivity has not before been expressed in the context of variable limiting factors to plant growth. We present a global investigation of vegetation responses to climatic changes by analyzing 18 years (1982 to 1999) of both climatic data and satellite observations of vegetation activity. Our results indicate that global changes in climate have eased several critical climatic constraints to plant growth, such that net primary production increased 6% (3.4 petagrams of carbon over 18 years) globally. The largest increase was in tropical ecosystems. Amazon rain forests accounted for 42% of the global increase in net primary production, owing mainly to decreased cloud cover and the resulting increase in solar radiation.

1 School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59801, USA.
2 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA 92037, USA.
3 Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyoku, Tokyo 113, Japan.
4 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
5 Department of Geography, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.



* Address after September 2003: NASA/Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nemani{at}ntsg.umt.edu

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