Behera et al. (2026) Photosynthetic Recovery Dynamics Reveal Declining Vegetation Functional Resilience in Tropical Ecosystems

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-03-31
• Authors: Subhrasita Behera, Chan Diao, Sebastian Bathiany, Niklas Boers, Debsunder Dutta
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl119875

Research Groups

Not specified in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study assesses global vegetation functional resilience from 2000 to 2019 using solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), revealing latitudinal contrasts in recovery rates and widespread resilience decline in tropical and Eurasian high-latitude ecosystems driven by climatic stressors.

Objective

• To assess global vegetation functional resilience using solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) as a physiological indicator for photosynthesis, from 2000 to 2019, to overcome limitations of traditional greenness-based resilience measures that overlook early physiological stress.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, covering natural vegetation, with specific focus on boreal regions, tropical and low-latitude ecosystems, and Eurasian high latitudes.
• Temporal Scale: 2000 to 2019 (19 years).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Indicators of critical slowing down (variance and autocorrelation) applied to SIF time series to derive recovery rates as a measure of resilience.
• Data sources: Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) time series.

Main Results

• Marked latitudinal contrasts in recovery rates were observed, with faster recovery in boreal regions and persistent vulnerability in tropical and low-latitude ecosystems.
• Long-term trends indicate a loss of resilience in the Eurasian high latitudes.
• Short-term trends show an accelerating decline in resilience in 60.7% of the global tropics.
• Resilience decline in the tropics is primarily driven by heat, vapor pressure deficit, and soil moisture stress.

Contributions

• Introduces solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) as a novel physiological indicator for assessing global vegetation functional resilience, addressing the limitations of traditional greenness-based measures.
• Provides a comprehensive global assessment of vegetation functional resilience and its temporal trends over nearly two decades.
• Identifies specific vulnerable regions (e.g., tropical and Eurasian high-latitude ecosystems) and the climatic drivers contributing to their resilience decline.
• Emphasizes the critical need for monitoring ecosystem functional resilience through physiological indicators to anticipate ecological tipping points and inform conservation and climate adaptation strategies.

Funding

Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Behera2026Photosynthetic,
  author = {Behera, Subhrasita and Diao, Chan and Bathiany, Sebastian and Boers, Niklas and Dutta, Debsunder},
  title = {Photosynthetic Recovery Dynamics Reveal Declining Vegetation Functional Resilience in Tropical Ecosystems},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl119875},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl119875}
}