Investigating the response of leaf area index to droughts in southern African vegetation using observations and model simulations

Lawal, Shakirudeen; Sitch, Stephen; Lombardozzi, Danica; Nabel, Julia E. M. S.; Wey, Hao-Wei; Friedlingstein, Pierre; Tian, Hanqin; Hewitson, Bruce

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2045-2022

Articles | Volume 26, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2045-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2045-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 8

Research article

|

27 Apr 2022

Research article |

| 27 Apr 2022

Investigating the response of leaf area index to droughts in southern African vegetation using observations and model simulations

Shakirudeen Lawal, Stephen Sitch, Danica Lombardozzi, Julia E. M. S. Nabel, Hao-Wei Wey, Pierre Friedlingstein, Hanqin Tian, and Bruce Hewitson

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Final revised paper (published on 27 Apr 2022)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 27 Nov 2020)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'comments to hess-2020-528', Anonymous Referee #1, 01 Jan 2021
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Shakirudeen Lawal, 18 Feb 2021
RC2: 'Review: Investigating the response of LAI to droughts in southern African vegetation using observations and model-simulations', Anonymous Referee #2, 07 Jan 2021
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Shakirudeen Lawal, 18 Feb 2021

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (30 Mar 2021) by Shraddhanand Shukla

AR by Shakirudeen Lawal on behalf of the Authors (04 Apr 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (09 Apr 2021) by Shraddhanand Shukla

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (09 May 2021)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The authors have done a commendable job in addressing most of the questions in the revised submission and the overall quality of the presentation has improved. I have only two major comments below:

1. Figure 3: I have trouble understanding what do the authors mean by spatiotemporal correlation? Does that mean the correlation coefficient for the shown scatter plot which includes monthly values across the time and space of the domain? If so, I don't think the values/pattern can inform much on the comparison.

The same concerns for Figure 3 (Q) that the domain averaged annual LAI is not able to demonstrate whether the model is able to capture the interannual variability as compared to the observation. Besides, the ensemble spread is much larger than the variation of LAI time series, making the comparison less meaningful as well.

I suggest the authors to calculate the correlation between GIMMS LAI and modelled LAI for both the original and deseasonalized time series for each grid point and show the correlation maps rather than a spatiotemporal correlation. Disucssion on 1) how model captures the LAI seasonal/interannual variations in terms of bioms and models and 2) how that may indicate the difference between observed and modeled system regarding vegetation response to drought are needed. Please refine Figure 3 and the corresponding text to address the issue.

2. Figure 10/Section 3.8. Thanks to the authors for explaining the section. However, I think it is still unclear in terms of how the correlation is calculated and how the correlation difference can be made for each dry/wet years shown in Figure 10. Is the map showing the correlation difference or LAI difference? Please clarify.

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (17 Jun 2021) by Shraddhanand Shukla

AR by Shakirudeen Lawal on behalf of the Authors (28 Jul 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (03 Oct 2021) by Shraddhanand Shukla

AR by Shakirudeen Lawal on behalf of the Authors (08 Oct 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (11 Oct 2021) by Shraddhanand Shukla

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (12 Nov 2021)

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (19 Nov 2021) by Shraddhanand Shukla

AR by Shakirudeen Lawal on behalf of the Authors (10 Dec 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (22 Dec 2021) by Shraddhanand Shukla

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (27 Dec 2021)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (16 Jan 2022) by Shraddhanand Shukla

AR by Shakirudeen Lawal on behalf of the Authors (23 Jan 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (17 Mar 2022) by Shraddhanand Shukla

AR by Shakirudeen Lawal on behalf of the Authors (26 Mar 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (28 Mar 2022) by Shraddhanand Shukla

Short summary

To investigate the impacts of drought on vegetation, which few studies have done due to various limitations, we used the leaf area index as proxy and dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) to simulate drought impacts because the models use observationally derived climate. We found that the semi-desert biome responds strongly to drought in the summer season, while the tropical forest biome shows a weak response. This study could help target areas to improve drought monitoring and simulation.