Wu et al. (2025) Global patterns and drivers of canopy storage capacity in different biomes

Identification

• Journal: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-02
• Authors: Mengdi Wu, Zhi‐Yun Jiang, Siyi Zhang, Yujun Ma, Shao‐Meng Li, Shuqin Han, Jinzhao Liu
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110918

Research Groups

• School of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
• National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
• School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
• State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710061, China

Short Summary

This study compiled global canopy storage capacity (S) observations from 162 publications and used a boosted regression tree model to identify its biotic and climatic drivers. It revealed that global S ranges from 0.08 mm to 8.9 mm, with a median of 0.93 mm, and that biotic factors are the primary predictors of S variation.

Objective

• To quantify the global patterns and drivers of canopy storage capacity (S) in different vegetation biomes.
• To determine the relative importance and interactions of biotic and climatic factors influencing S across a variety of global landscapes.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, covering various vegetation biomes.
• Temporal Scale: Synthesizes observations across various time points from 162 peer-reviewed publications.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) model.
• Data sources: Compiled 475 observations of canopy storage capacity (S) from 162 peer-reviewed publications.

Main Results

• The global canopy storage capacity (S) ranged from 0.08 mm to 8.9 mm, with a median value of 0.93 mm.
• Tropical seasonal forests, tropical rain forests, temperate seasonal forests, and temperate rain forests exhibited greater S values (median S: 0.91 mm, 1.18 mm, 1.28 mm, and 1.26 mm, respectively) compared to less wooded biomes.
• Woody components (SW) showed a storage capacity ranging from 0.004 mm to 5.85 mm (median: 0.15 mm), which was similar to leaf storage capacity (SL) ranging from 0.01 mm to 4.9 mm (median: 0.18 mm) per unit projected canopy area.
• The BRT model identified leaf area index (LAI) (11.98 %), wind speed (11.59 %), and diameter at breast height (DBH) (9.46 %) as the best predictors for S.
• Biotic factors collectively accounted for 50.5 % of the total variation in S values.
• Other biotic variables, such as leaf phenology, also significantly influence S, exhibiting spatial heterogeneity globally and regionally.

Contributions

• Identifies and quantifies the global patterns of canopy storage capacity (S) across different biomes.
• Highlights the essential and comparable role of woody components in overall canopy storage capacity.
• Provides a valuable dataset of canopy traits and their drivers for improving global land surface models.
• Quantifies the relative importance and interactions of biotic and climatic factors influencing S, advancing the understanding of ecohydrological processes.

Funding

[No funding information was provided in the excerpt.]

Citation

@article{Wu2025Global,
  author = {Wu, Mengdi and Jiang, Zhi‐Yun and Zhang, Siyi and Ma, Yujun and Li, Shao‐Meng and Han, Shuqin and Liu, Jinzhao},
  title = {Global patterns and drivers of canopy storage capacity in different biomes},
  journal = {Agricultural and Forest Meteorology},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110918},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110918}
}