Understanding the unknown role of drought on vegetation phenology and CO2 uptake in African savannas

The ecology and stability of tropical savannas are of scientific importance due to their dominant role in the global carbon cycle, susceptibility to drought, high biodiversity, and human dependence on the ecosystem services they provide. However, there is little information about the ecological processes that occur during periods of drought and how they impact CO2 uptake subsequent growing seasons. Because tropical savannas cover one-fifth of the Earth’s surface, satellite remote sensing is an essential tool for studying these ecosystems. This indispensability of remote sensing manifests itself not only in the large spatial coverage of Earth observation (EO) data, but also in the opportunities it offers for the multi-scalar and multi-temporal analysis necessary to study these complex ecosystems. This project harnesses this opportunity through innovative use of state-of-the-art EO data and derived products from the European Copernicus program, and the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative. In addition to EO data, this project will integrate site-level biometeorological data from the vast FLUXNET network that hosts data from across sub-Saharan Africa. This project comprises three core objectives that will be achieved through a series of research questions. The coupled effects of climate change and human pressure will inevitably cause decline in ecosystem function in savannas, which will necessitate integrated cutting-edge research such as this project.

This project is funded by the Swedish Research Council and its aim is to investigate the role of intra- and inter-seasonal drought on CO2 uptake in drylands using a multi-scalar and multi-temporal Earth observation-based framework. Drylands have a disproportionately large impact on the global climate system and this project will fill a considerable gap in our knowledge about the processes that govern current trends and inter-annual variability in terrestrial CO2 uptake over ecosystems.