Estimation of aerosol radiative effects on terrestrial gross primary productivity and water use efficiency using process-based model and satellite data

China experienced heavy aerosol pollution in recent years. The aerosol pollution changes surface solar radiation and affects the land terrestrial carbon and water cycles in China. However, there are still some uncertainties in evaluating aerosol effects on ecosystem. Therefore, we combined the MODIS Atmosphere and Land products with process-based model to examine the sensitivity of gross primary productivity (GPP) and water use efficiency (WUE) to AOD. We also evaluated the effects of aerosol loadings on GPP and WUE at China FLUX sites from 2002 to 2015. Our results indicated that the radiative effects of aerosols on GPP varied with the vegetation type, which is consistent with other studies. Aerosol enhances the GPP by 2% in forest and reduces the GPP by 7% in grass land during the study period. We also found that the radiative effects of aerosols on WUE varied with the vegetation type. The WUE was promoted by the aerosols for all surface types when AOD is lower than 2.3. This indicates that the aerosol could enhance the plants WUE in most cases. Cloud during the study period restrains aerosol effects on growth of plants and improves the aerosol effects on WUE. Aerosol loadings during the study period fertilized the growth in two forest growth and slightly impede the growth of grass. They also improve the WUE for all vegetation types. The WUE increases more that 4% in most of sites increases. The results in this paper could help to fully understand the influences of aerosol on land carbon and water cycle.