Uncovering the critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress for European ecosystems

Zheng Fu; Philippe Ciais; David Makowski; Ana Bastos; Paul C. Stoy; Andreas Ibrom; Alexander Knohl; Mirco Migliavacca; Matthias Cuntz; Ladislav Šigut; Matthias Peichl; Denis Loustau; Tarek S. El‐Madany; Nina Buchmann; Mana Gharun; Ivan Janssens; Christian Markwitz; Thomas Grünwald; Corinna Rebmann; Meelis Mölder; Andrej Varlagin; Ivan Mammarella; Pasi Kolari; Christian Bernhofer; Michal Heliasz; Caroline Vincke; Andrea Pitacco; Edoardo Cremonese; Lenka Foltýnová; Jean‐Pierre Wigneron

doi:10.1111/gcb.16050

Uncovering the critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress for European ecosystems

Zheng Fu^*, Philippe Ciais, David Makowski, Ana Bastos, Paul C. Stoy, Andreas Ibrom, Alexander Knohl, Mirco Migliavacca, Matthias Cuntz, Ladislav Šigut, Matthias Peichl, Denis Loustau, Tarek S. El‐Madany, Nina Buchmann, Mana Gharun, Ivan Janssens, Christian Markwitz, Thomas Grünwald, Corinna Rebmann, Meelis MölderAndrej Varlagin, Ivan Mammarella, Pasi Kolari, Christian Bernhofer, Michal Heliasz, Caroline Vincke, Andrea Pitacco, Edoardo Cremonese, Lenka Foltýnová, Jean‐Pierre Wigneron

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Understanding the critical soil moisture (SM) threshold (θ_crit) of plant water stress and land surface energy partitioning is a basis to evaluate drought impacts and improve models for predicting future ecosystem condition and climate. Quantifying the θ_crit across biomes and climates is challenging because observations of surface energy fluxes and SM remain sparse. Here, we used the latest database of eddy covariance measurements to estimate θ_crit across Europe by evaluating evaporative fraction (EF)-SM relationships and investigating the covariance between vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and gross primary production (GPP) during SM dry-down periods. We found that the θ_crit and soil matric potential threshold in Europe are 16.5% and −0.7 MPa, respectively. Surface energy partitioning characteristics varied among different vegetation types; EF in savannas had the highest sensitivities to SM in water-limited stage, and the lowest in forests. The sign of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP consistently changed from positive to negative during dry-down across all sites when EF shifted from relatively high to low values. This sign of the covariance changed after longer period of SM decline in forests than in grasslands and savannas. Estimated θ_crit from the VPD-GPP covariance method match well with the EF-SM method, showing this covariance method can be used to detect the θ_crit. We further found that soil texture dominates the spatial variability of θcrit while shortwave radiation and VPD are the major drivers in determining the spatial pattern of EF sensitivities. Our results highlight for the first time that the sign change of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP can be used as an indicator of how ecosystems transition from energy to SM limitation. We also characterized the corresponding θ_crit and its drivers across diverse ecosystems in Europe, an essential variable to improve the representation of water stress in land surface models.

Original language	English
Journal	Global Change Biology
Volume	28
Issue number	6
Pages (from-to)	2111-2123
Number of pages	13
ISSN	1354-1013
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16050
Publication status	Published - 2022

Keywords

Critical soil moisture threshold
Surface energy partitioning
Vapor pressure deficit
Evaporative fraction
Gross primary production
Drought
Europe

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Fu, Z., Ciais, P., Makowski, D., Bastos, A., Stoy, P. C., Ibrom, A., Knohl, A., Migliavacca, M., Cuntz, M., Šigut, L., Peichl, M., Loustau, D., El‐Madany, T. S., Buchmann, N., Gharun, M., Janssens, I., Markwitz, C., Grünwald, T., Rebmann, C., ... Wigneron, JP. (2022). Uncovering the critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress for European ecosystems. Global Change Biology, 28(6), 2111-2123. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16050

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title = "Uncovering the critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress for European ecosystems",

abstract = "Understanding the critical soil moisture (SM) threshold (θcrit) of plant water stress and land surface energy partitioning is a basis to evaluate drought impacts and improve models for predicting future ecosystem condition and climate. Quantifying the θcrit across biomes and climates is challenging because observations of surface energy fluxes and SM remain sparse. Here, we used the latest database of eddy covariance measurements to estimate θcrit across Europe by evaluating evaporative fraction (EF)-SM relationships and investigating the covariance between vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and gross primary production (GPP) during SM dry-down periods. We found that the θcrit and soil matric potential threshold in Europe are 16.5% and −0.7 MPa, respectively. Surface energy partitioning characteristics varied among different vegetation types; EF in savannas had the highest sensitivities to SM in water-limited stage, and the lowest in forests. The sign of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP consistently changed from positive to negative during dry-down across all sites when EF shifted from relatively high to low values. This sign of the covariance changed after longer period of SM decline in forests than in grasslands and savannas. Estimated θcrit from the VPD-GPP covariance method match well with the EF-SM method, showing this covariance method can be used to detect the θcrit. We further found that soil texture dominates the spatial variability of θcrit while shortwave radiation and VPD are the major drivers in determining the spatial pattern of EF sensitivities. Our results highlight for the first time that the sign change of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP can be used as an indicator of how ecosystems transition from energy to SM limitation. We also characterized the corresponding θcrit and its drivers across diverse ecosystems in Europe, an essential variable to improve the representation of water stress in land surface models.",

keywords = "Critical soil moisture threshold, Surface energy partitioning, Vapor pressure deficit, Evaporative fraction, Gross primary production, Drought, Europe",

author = "Zheng Fu and Philippe Ciais and David Makowski and Ana Bastos and Stoy, {Paul C.} and Andreas Ibrom and Alexander Knohl and Mirco Migliavacca and Matthias Cuntz and Ladislav {\v S}igut and Matthias Peichl and Denis Loustau and El‐Madany, {Tarek S.} and Nina Buchmann and Mana Gharun and Ivan Janssens and Christian Markwitz and Thomas Gr{\"u}nwald and Corinna Rebmann and Meelis M{\"o}lder and Andrej Varlagin and Ivan Mammarella and Pasi Kolari and Christian Bernhofer and Michal Heliasz and Caroline Vincke and Andrea Pitacco and Edoardo Cremonese and Lenka Folt{\'y}nov{\'a} and Jean‐Pierre Wigneron",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.1111/gcb.16050",

language = "English",

volume = "28",

pages = "2111--2123",

journal = "Global Change Biology",

issn = "1354-1013",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "6",

}

Fu, Z, Ciais, P, Makowski, D, Bastos, A, Stoy, PC, Ibrom, A, Knohl, A, Migliavacca, M, Cuntz, M, Šigut, L, Peichl, M, Loustau, D, El‐Madany, TS, Buchmann, N, Gharun, M, Janssens, I, Markwitz, C, Grünwald, T, Rebmann, C, Mölder, M, Varlagin, A, Mammarella, I, Kolari, P, Bernhofer, C, Heliasz, M, Vincke, C, Pitacco, A, Cremonese, E, Foltýnová, L & Wigneron, JP 2022, 'Uncovering the critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress for European ecosystems', Global Change Biology, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 2111-2123. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16050

TY - JOUR

T1 - Uncovering the critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress for European ecosystems

AU - Fu, Zheng

AU - Ciais, Philippe

AU - Makowski, David

AU - Bastos, Ana

AU - Stoy, Paul C.

AU - Ibrom, Andreas

AU - Knohl, Alexander

AU - Migliavacca, Mirco

AU - Cuntz, Matthias

AU - Šigut, Ladislav

AU - Peichl, Matthias

AU - Loustau, Denis

AU - El‐Madany, Tarek S.

AU - Buchmann, Nina

AU - Gharun, Mana

AU - Janssens, Ivan

AU - Markwitz, Christian

AU - Grünwald, Thomas

AU - Rebmann, Corinna

AU - Mölder, Meelis

AU - Varlagin, Andrej

AU - Mammarella, Ivan

AU - Kolari, Pasi

AU - Bernhofer, Christian

AU - Heliasz, Michal

AU - Vincke, Caroline

AU - Pitacco, Andrea

AU - Cremonese, Edoardo

AU - Foltýnová, Lenka

AU - Wigneron, Jean‐Pierre

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Understanding the critical soil moisture (SM) threshold (θcrit) of plant water stress and land surface energy partitioning is a basis to evaluate drought impacts and improve models for predicting future ecosystem condition and climate. Quantifying the θcrit across biomes and climates is challenging because observations of surface energy fluxes and SM remain sparse. Here, we used the latest database of eddy covariance measurements to estimate θcrit across Europe by evaluating evaporative fraction (EF)-SM relationships and investigating the covariance between vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and gross primary production (GPP) during SM dry-down periods. We found that the θcrit and soil matric potential threshold in Europe are 16.5% and −0.7 MPa, respectively. Surface energy partitioning characteristics varied among different vegetation types; EF in savannas had the highest sensitivities to SM in water-limited stage, and the lowest in forests. The sign of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP consistently changed from positive to negative during dry-down across all sites when EF shifted from relatively high to low values. This sign of the covariance changed after longer period of SM decline in forests than in grasslands and savannas. Estimated θcrit from the VPD-GPP covariance method match well with the EF-SM method, showing this covariance method can be used to detect the θcrit. We further found that soil texture dominates the spatial variability of θcrit while shortwave radiation and VPD are the major drivers in determining the spatial pattern of EF sensitivities. Our results highlight for the first time that the sign change of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP can be used as an indicator of how ecosystems transition from energy to SM limitation. We also characterized the corresponding θcrit and its drivers across diverse ecosystems in Europe, an essential variable to improve the representation of water stress in land surface models.

AB - Understanding the critical soil moisture (SM) threshold (θcrit) of plant water stress and land surface energy partitioning is a basis to evaluate drought impacts and improve models for predicting future ecosystem condition and climate. Quantifying the θcrit across biomes and climates is challenging because observations of surface energy fluxes and SM remain sparse. Here, we used the latest database of eddy covariance measurements to estimate θcrit across Europe by evaluating evaporative fraction (EF)-SM relationships and investigating the covariance between vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and gross primary production (GPP) during SM dry-down periods. We found that the θcrit and soil matric potential threshold in Europe are 16.5% and −0.7 MPa, respectively. Surface energy partitioning characteristics varied among different vegetation types; EF in savannas had the highest sensitivities to SM in water-limited stage, and the lowest in forests. The sign of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP consistently changed from positive to negative during dry-down across all sites when EF shifted from relatively high to low values. This sign of the covariance changed after longer period of SM decline in forests than in grasslands and savannas. Estimated θcrit from the VPD-GPP covariance method match well with the EF-SM method, showing this covariance method can be used to detect the θcrit. We further found that soil texture dominates the spatial variability of θcrit while shortwave radiation and VPD are the major drivers in determining the spatial pattern of EF sensitivities. Our results highlight for the first time that the sign change of the covariance between daily VPD and GPP can be used as an indicator of how ecosystems transition from energy to SM limitation. We also characterized the corresponding θcrit and its drivers across diverse ecosystems in Europe, an essential variable to improve the representation of water stress in land surface models.

KW - Critical soil moisture threshold

KW - Surface energy partitioning

KW - Vapor pressure deficit

KW - Evaporative fraction

KW - Gross primary production

KW - Drought

KW - Europe

U2 - 10.1111/gcb.16050

DO - 10.1111/gcb.16050

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34927310

SN - 1354-1013

VL - 28

SP - 2111

EP - 2123

JO - Global Change Biology

JF - Global Change Biology

IS - 6

ER -

Uncovering the critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress for European ecosystems

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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