Qiu et al. (2026) Uncovering the dynamic role of bedrock-stored water in ecosystem evapotranspiration

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Hydrology
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-01-19
• Authors: Yang Qiu, Fawang Zhang, Lin Gao, Zekang He, Hanxiang Xiong, Ling Peng, Ke Li, Hao Cui, Cheng Su, Defang Zhang, Sen Zhou, Chuanming Ma, Aiguo Zhou
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.134987

Research Groups

• School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China
• Natural Resources Survey, China Geological Survey, Beijing, China
• Tianjin Center, China Geological Survey, Tianjin, China
• North China Center for Geoscience Innovation, Tianjin, China
• Center for Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology Survey, China Geological Survey, Baoding, Hebei, China
• School of Architecture and Design, Xinyu University, Xinyu, China

Short Summary

This study introduces a dynamic bedrock water evapotranspiration model to quantify the contribution of bedrock-stored water to ecosystem evapotranspiration across China, revealing its significant role in sustaining ecosystem productivity and drought resilience, particularly in water-stressed regions.

Objective

• To introduce and apply a dynamic bedrock water evapotranspiration model to estimate daily bedrock-derived evapotranspiration across China.
• To quantify the temporal and spatial patterns of evapotranspiration from bedrock-stored water.
• To investigate the causal relationship between bedrock water and ecosystem productivity and carbon stocks in water-stressed climates.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: National scale, covering China.
• Temporal Scale: Multi-year daily estimations.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Dynamic bedrock water evapotranspiration model, Causal machine learning.
• Data sources: Multi-year meteorological datasets, Remote sensing datasets.

Main Results

• Over 50% of shallow bedrock ecosystems utilize bedrock water.
• Bedrock water contributes 10.84% of total evapotranspiration and 7.99% of vegetation transpiration across China.
• In arid/semi-arid and seasonally dry regions (e.g., southwestern and northwestern China), seasonal water-carbon decoupling increases dependence on bedrock water.
• Bedrock water significantly enhances ecosystem productivity and carbon stocks by sustaining transpiration in water-stressed climates (False Discovery Rate < 0.05).

Contributions

• Challenges the traditional soil-centric paradigm in ecohydrology by quantifying the critical role of bedrock-stored water.
• Introduces a novel dynamic bedrock water evapotranspiration model for improved quantification.
• Provides a comprehensive analysis linking hydrology, plant physiology, and carbon cycling across diverse climatic gradients.
• Offers insights to improve land surface models and enhance predictions of ecosystem responses to intensifying drought.

Funding

• Not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Qiu2026Uncovering,
  author = {Qiu, Yang and Zhang, Fawang and Gao, Lin and He, Zekang and Xiong, Hanxiang and Peng, Ling and Li, Ke and Cui, Hao and Su, Cheng and Zhang, Defang and Zhou, Sen and Ma, Chuanming and Zhou, Aiguo},
  title = {Uncovering the dynamic role of bedrock-stored water in ecosystem evapotranspiration},
  journal = {Journal of Hydrology},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.134987},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.134987}
}