eprintid: 36807
rev_number: 16
eprint_status: archive
userid: 9120
dir: disk0/00/03/68/07
datestamp: 2025-07-08 09:12:23
lastmod: 2025-07-10 19:01:40
status_changed: 2025-07-08 09:12:23
type: doctoralThesis
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Metz, Eva-Marie
title: Deciphering Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Processes in Southern Hemispheric Semiarid Regions
subjects: ddc-530
divisions: i-130500
adv_faculty: af-13
cterms_swd: Kohlenstoffkreislauf
cterms_swd: Kohlendioxid
cterms_swd: Fernerkundung
cterms_swd: Satellit
cterms_swd: Südliche Hemisphäre
abstract: The land carbon sink partly mitigates climate change by taking up one third of the anthropogenic fossil fuel CO2 emissions every year. Semiarid ecosystems contribute significantly to the interannual dynamics of the land sink. However, state-of-the-art land-atmosphere CO2 flux estimates by in situ measurement-based atmospheric inversions and dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) show large uncertainties for semiarid regions in the Southern Hemisphere. This cumulative thesis demonstrates the potential of satellite data to improve regional CO2 flux estimates in the Southern Hemisphere and to be used as an atmospheric constraint to evaluate DGVMs. CO2 fluxes based on the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) for 2009 - 2018 are evaluated in three study regions in Australia, southern Africa, and South America. Vegetation processes driving the flux dynamics are identified by using DGVMs that align well with the GOSAT-based fluxes. We find that ecosystem respiration responding to soil moisture and soil rewetting drives seasonal and interannual variability in the carbon cycle in semiarid regions. This work calls for improving the representation of soil rewetting processes in DGVMs to accurately model the carbon dynamics in semiarid regions and thereby reduce uncertainties of the global carbon budget and enable more accurate projections of climate-carbon feedbacks.
date: 2025
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00036807
ppn_swb: 193029042X
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-368077
date_accepted: 2025-07-02
advisor: HASH(0x5608d3d9ffd8)
language: eng
bibsort: METZEVAMARDECIPHERIN2025
full_text_status: public
place_of_pub: Heidelberg
citation:   Metz, Eva-Marie  (2025) Deciphering Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Processes in Southern Hemispheric Semiarid Regions.  [Dissertation]     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/36807/1/PhD_Thesis_final_EM_Metz.pdf