Li et al. (2026) Asymmetric impacts and legacy effects of dry-wet abrupt alternation on global terrestrial vegetation productivity

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

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-14
• Authors: Yang Li, Wenbin Liu, Yuanyuan Huang, Hong Wang, Ziwei Li, Tingting Wang, Feng Yao, Hongjing Huang, Ge Song, Fubao Sun
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aeb433

Research Groups

Not available in the provided abstract.

Short Summary

This study systematically assessed the asymmetric impacts and legacy effects of dry-wet abrupt alternation (DWAA) on global vegetation productivity. It found that DWAA causes spatially heterogeneous and direction-dependent gross primary productivity (GPP) losses, with dry-to-wet transitions leading to greater initial losses and wet-to-dry transitions resulting in longer-lasting losses and distinct recovery patterns.

Objective

• To systematically assess the asymmetric impacts and legacy effects of dry-wet abrupt alternation (DWAA), including dry-to-wet (DW) and wet-to-dry (WD) transitions, on global vegetation productivity.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global
• Temporal Scale: Monthly event identification, post-event dynamics over multiple growing-season months.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI)
• Data sources: Three gross primary productivity (GPP) products

Main Results

• DWAA caused spatially heterogeneous and direction-dependent GPP losses.
• Dry-to-wet (DW) transitions caused greater initial GPP losses, while wet-to-dry (WD) losses persisted longer.
• DW loss exceeded WD loss in five of the six main product–index comparisons, a magnitude asymmetry robust to alternative event thresholds but dependent on accumulation scale.
• Grasslands most frequently showed the largest transition-month GPP loss across different growing-season-length classes.
• Following DW events, GPP generally returned to or exceeded the local monthly background by the second post-event growing-season month.
• Following WD events, GPP generally approached the background by the third post-event growing-season month.
• Post-DW recovery was characterized by a strengthened positive response to soil moisture and more negative responses to radiation and temperature.
• Post-WD events showed consistently lower GPP responses to precipitation than normal months, with mixed responses to soil moisture, radiation, and temperature.

Contributions

• Provides the first systematic assessment of the asymmetric impacts and legacy effects of dry-wet abrupt alternation on global vegetation productivity.
• Highlights the direction- and context-dependent impacts of compound dry-wet extremes on the global carbon cycle.
• Supports the improved representation of compound dry-wet extremes in ecosystem resilience assessments under climate change.

Funding

Not available in the provided abstract.

Citation

@article{Li2026Asymmetric,
  author = {Li, Yang and Liu, Wenbin and Huang, Yuanyuan and Wang, Hong and Li, Ziwei and Wang, Tingting and Yao, Feng and Huang, Hongjing and Song, Ge and Sun, Fubao},
  title = {Asymmetric impacts and legacy effects of dry-wet abrupt alternation on global terrestrial vegetation productivity},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aeb433},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aeb433}
}