Drought dominates the interannual variability in global terrestrial net primary production by controlling semi-arid ecosystems.

Drought is a main driver of interannual variation in global terrestrial net primary production. However, how and to what extent drought impacts global NPP variability is unclear. Based on the multi-timescale drought index SPEI and a satellite-based annual global terrestrial NPP dataset, we observed a robust relationship between drought and NPP in both hemispheres. In the Northern Hemisphere, the annual NPP trend is driven by 19-month drought variation, whereas that in the Southern Hemisphere is driven by 16-month drought variation. Drought-dominated NPP, which mainly occurs in semi-arid ecosystems, explains 29% of the interannual variation in global NPP, despite its 16% contribution to total global NPP. More surprisingly, drought prone ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere, which only account for 7% of the total global NPP, contribute to 33% of the interannual variation in global NPP. Our observations support the leading role of semi-arid ecosystems in interannual variability in global NPP and highlight the great impacts of long-term drought on the global carbon cycle.

The variation of the water deficit during the winter wheat growing season and its impact on crop yield in the North China Plain.

The North China Plain (NCP) is one of the main agricultural areas in China. However, it is also widely known for its water shortages, especially during the winter wheat growing season. Recently, climate change has significantly affected the water environment for crop growth. Analyzing the changes in the water deficit, which is only affected by climate factor, will help to improve water management in the NCP. In this study, the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) was used to investigate the variations in the water deficit during the winter wheat growing season from 1961 to 2010 in 12 selected stations in the NCP. To represent the changes in the water deficit without any artificial affection, the rainfed simulation was used. Over the past 50 years, the average temperature during the winter wheat growing season increased approximately 1.42 °C. The anthesis date moved forward approximately 7-10 days and to late April, which increased the water demand in April. Precipitation in March and May showed a positive trend, but there was a negative trend in April. The water deficit in late April and early May became more serious than before, with an increasing trend of more than 0.1 mm/year. In addition, because the heading stage, which is very important to crop yield of winter wheat, moved forward, the impact of water deficit in late April was more serious to crop yield.