ArticleNature communications2024
Why models underestimate West African tropical forest primary productivity.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Environmental influences on the maximum quantum yield of terrestrial primary production.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Pantropical moist forests are converging towards a middle leaf longevity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Carbon dioxide removals by tropical moist forests offset most land-use emissions across 18 Afrotropical countries.Communications earth & environment · 2026Article
- The UFLUX ensemble of multiple-scale carbon, water, and energy fluxes.Scientific data · 2025Article
- A test of ecophysiological theories on tropical forest functional traits along a VPD gradient.Communications biology · 2025Article
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13 authors.
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Abstract
Tropical forests dominate terrestrial photosynthesis, yet there are major contradictions in our understanding due to a lack of field studies, especially outside the tropical Americas. A recent field study indicated that West African forests have among the highest forests gross primary productivity (GPP) yet observed, contradicting models that rank them lower than Amazonian forests. Here, we show possible reasons for this data-model mismatch. We found that biometric GPP measurements are on average 56.3% higher than multiple global GPP products at the study sites. The underestimation of GPP largely disappears when a standard photosynthesis model is informed by local field-measured values of (a) fractional absorbed photosynthetic radiation (fAPAR), and (b) photosynthetic traits. Remote sensing products systematically underestimate fAPAR (33.9% on average at study sites) due to cloud contamination issues. The study highlights the potential widespread underestimation of tropical forests GPP and carbon cycling and hints at the ways forward for model and input data improvement.
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