Peng et al. (2025) Global Evidence of the Unimodal Response of Ecosystem Respiration to Soil Moisture

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Identification

• Journal: Advanced Science
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-10-30
• Authors: Jinlong Peng, Shudi Xie, Jiwang Tang, Jiaqiang Liao, Chen Chen, Chuanlian Sun, Yiheng Wang, Qingping Zhou, Guirui Yu, Shuli Niu
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202509753

Research Groups

Not explicitly stated in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study analyzes ecosystem respiration (ER) response to soil moisture at 135 global FLUXNET sites, revealing a prevalent unimodal response with an optimum soil moisture level, challenging monotonic assumptions in models, and demonstrating ER's adaptation to local water availability.

Objective

• To analyze the ecosystem respiration (ER)-soil moisture response curves globally to better understand the relationship between ER and soil moisture.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global (135 FLUXNET sites).
• Temporal Scale: Long-term (implied by FLUXNET data analysis and "long-term water deficit" in field experiment).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: None explicitly used for analysis in this study; findings are contrasted with assumptions derived from land surface models.
• Data sources: Global FLUXNET network (135 sites), field experiment.

Main Results

• 106 out of 135 sites exhibit a unimodal soil moisture response for ER, with a peak at an apparent optimum soil moisture (SMER opt).
• This indicates a prevalent inhibitory effect of soil moisture excess on ER, contrary to typically assumed monotonic increases.
• SMER opt is primarily related to local water availability, with drier sites showing lower SMER opt than wetter sites.
• A field experiment confirmed this adaptation, showing a downward shift in SMER opt after long-term water deficit.

Contributions

• Reveals the large variation of SMER opt across different sites.
• Provides evidence for the water adaptation of ER.
• Offers novel insights for understanding and forecasting carbon-climate feedbacks, challenging existing assumptions in land surface models.

Funding

Not explicitly stated in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Peng2025Global,
  author = {Peng, Jinlong and Xie, Shudi and Tang, Jiwang and Liao, Jiaqiang and Chen, Chen and Sun, Chuanlian and Wang, Yiheng and Zhou, Qingping and Yu, Guirui and Niu, Shuli},
  title = {Global Evidence of the Unimodal Response of Ecosystem Respiration to Soil Moisture},
  journal = {Advanced Science},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1002/advs.202509753},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202509753}
}