Gupta et al. (2026) Dominant Role of Soil Moisture Regulating Vegetation Water Content During Flash Drought Evolution

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Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-04-21
• Authors: Amitesh Gupta, L. Karthikeyan, Ashok Mishra, Lixin Wang
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl119366

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study investigates the impact of concurrent and antecedent rootzone soil moisture (SM) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) on vegetation optical depth (VOD) during flash droughts, concluding that SM is the primary driver of global ecosystem responses.

Objective

• To evaluate the relative influence of current and past rootzone soil moisture and vapor pressure deficit on vegetation water content (proxied by VOD) across various ecosystems during the evolution of flash droughts.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global.
• Temporal Scale: Duration of flash drought evolution.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not explicitly mentioned (Analysis of satellite-derived proxies).
• Data sources: Satellite-based Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD), rootzone soil moisture (SM), and vapor pressure deficit (VPD).

Main Results

• Primary Driver: Rootzone soil moisture (SM) exerts a greater influence on VOD than vapor pressure deficit (VPD) throughout all phases of flash droughts.
• Ecosystem Sensitivity: VOD sensitivity to simultaneous SM and VPD fluctuations diverges as droughts evolve, decreasing in natural ecosystems while increasing in croplands.
• VOD Dynamics: The most severe VOD declines are observed in grasslands-shrublands; recovery is fastest in croplands and slowest in forests.
• Regional/Trait Influence: Concurrent SM has the strongest impact on grasslands-shrublands in dry anisohydric regions, whereas antecedent SM has the weakest effect in humid isohydric forests.

Contributions

• The research highlights the divergent responses of different plant functional types to flash droughts based on their water-use strategies (isohydric vs. anisohydric) and background aridity, emphasizing the need for region-specific mitigation strategies.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Gupta2026Dominant,
  author = {Gupta, Amitesh and Karthikeyan, L. and Mishra, Ashok and Wang, Lixin},
  title = {Dominant Role of Soil Moisture Regulating Vegetation Water Content During Flash Drought Evolution},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl119366},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl119366}
}