Stomatal controls on vegetation productivity and water cycling across the African continent in a warmer and CO2 enriched climate

Abstract:

General Circulation Models (GCMs) forecast higher vapor pressure deficit (VPD) but unchanged relative humidity (RH) in future climates. A recent literature survey revealed some 50% of Earth System (ESMs) and Land Surface (LSMs) Models embedded within GCMs employ RH as an atmospheric aridity index when describing stomatal conductance (gs) while the remaining 50% employ VPD. Propagating the consequences of using RH or VPD in gs models on water cycling and vegetation productivity in future climates in one of the most vulnerable continents, the African continent, remains to be explored.

Using process-based global dynamic vegetation model runs, changes in the hydrological cycle and concomitant vegetation productivity for a 21st century projected climate are conducted by altering only gs responses to VPD or RH while maintaining all other formulations unaltered. In the simulations under warming trend of the 21st century, both stomata functions of VPD and RH result in nearly identical changes in the geographic pattern of Gross Primary Production (GPP). However, continental total of GPP becomes bit larger for the VPD function than for the RH function. Transpiration rates becomes lower resulting in water-use-efficiency becoming higher by some 13% for the VPD function when compared to its RH counterpart.