Relationship between gross primary production and environmental variables during drought season in South Korea

Abstract

Water stress and environmental drivers are important factors to explain the variance of gross primary production (GPP). Environmental drivers are used to generate GPP in Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) algorithm and process-based model. However, MODIS algorithm only consider the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) data while the process-based biogeochemical model also uses limited data to express water stress. We compared the relationship between environmental drivers and GPP from eddy covariance method, MODIS algorithm, and Community Land Model 4 (CLM 4) simulation in normal years and drought years. To consider water stress specifically, we used VPD and evaporative fraction (EF). We evaluated the effects from environmental drivers and EF towards GPP products using the structural equation modeling (SEM) in South Korea. We found that GPP products from MODIS algorithm and model simulation results were not restricted from VPD data if VPD was underestimated. We also found that in the cropland area, irrigation effects can relieve VPD effects to GPP. However, GPP products derived from MODIS and CLM 4 had limitation to explain the irrigation effects to GPP. Overall, these results will enhance the understanding of GPP products derived from MODIS and CLM 4.