Xiong et al. (2026) Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Vegetation‐Atmosphere Decoupling Coefficient Across the Contiguous United States

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Identification

• Journal: Water Resources Research
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-01
• Authors: Jinran Xiong, Yu Feng, Jie Wu, Qifan Liu, Daozhi Gong, Mengxiang Kong, Ziqi Lin, Chunmiao Zheng
• DOI: 10.1029/2025wr042283

Research Groups

• Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine
• AmeriFlux Management Project

Short Summary

This study quantified the decoupling coefficient (Ω) across 52 AmeriFlux sites in the contiguous U.S., revealing a significant increasing trend in continental-mean Ω due to progressively weaker vegetation-atmosphere coupling.

Objective

• Investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of the decoupling coefficient (Ω) across different plant functional types and climatic gradients in heterogeneous land surfaces under climate change.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Continental-scale analysis of 52 AmeriFlux sites across four plant functional types in the contiguous U.S. (CONUS).
• Temporal Scale: 2001 to 2024, with a focus on long-term trends and variability.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) integrated with satellite observations and reanalysis data.
• Data sources: AmeriFlux measurements, satellite data (e.g., MODIS), and reanalysis products (e.g., ERA5).

Main Results

• Continental-mean Ω shows a significant increasing trend of 1.0 × 10^−3 yr^−1 (p < 0.05).
• Stronger decoupling in water-limited regions, with volatile and asymmetric responses to drought.
• Stable coupling state in energy-limited regions.

Contributions

• Provides new insights into the spatiotemporal variability of Ω in CONUS under climate change.
• Highlights the pivotal role of vegetation in modulating water fluxes under shifting climatic regimes and drought stress.

Funding

• Supported by the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMF) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Citation

@article{Xiong2026Spatiotemporal,
  author = {Xiong, Jinran and Feng, Yu and Wu, Jie and Liu, Qifan and Gong, Daozhi and Kong, Mengxiang and Lin, Ziqi and Zheng, Chunmiao},
  title = {Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Vegetation‐Atmosphere Decoupling Coefficient Across the Contiguous United States},
  journal = {Water Resources Research},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2025wr042283},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025wr042283}
}