Temperature and Precipitation Response to Vegetation Greenness

Figure temperature-precipitation-response-vegetation-greenness

This figure appears in the Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2007 report.

(Left) Observed response of temperature to an increase in vegetation greenness, calculated from satellite observations. The units are °C per 0.1 FPAR (fraction of photosynthetically available radiation absorbed by the plant canopy). This illustrates vegetation feedbacks on temperature resulting from month-to-month variability in leaf and plant amount. (Right) Same as the left figure, but showing the response of precipitation to a change in vegetation. Units are cm/month per 0.1 FPAR. Credit: Z. Liu, University of Wisconsin (reproduced from the Journal of Climate with permission from the American Meteorological Society).

Copyright protected. Obtain permission from the original figure source.