Mi et al. (2026) Warming Reshapes Land-Atmosphere Coupling: The LST-SM-ET-GPP Framework

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Identification

• Journal: Atmosphere
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-03-31
• Authors: Ruihan Mi, Xinyu Zhao, Ying Ma, Xiangyu Zhang, Leer Bao, Bin Jin
• DOI: 10.3390/atmos17040352

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

This paper synthesizes an integrated conceptual framework (LST-SM-ET-GPP chain) and a diagnostic roadmap to unify understanding of land-atmosphere coupling, explaining how controlling factors dynamically shift between energy-limited and moisture-limited regimes, particularly highlighting a critical soil moisture threshold during water depletion.

Objective

• To challenge fragmented perspectives on land-atmosphere coupling by constructing an integrated LST-SM-ET-GPP chain that links water availability, surface energy balance, and plant physiological processes within a unified framework.
• To synthesize a conceptual diagnostic roadmap for interpreting land-atmosphere coupling across observations and models.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional to ecosystem scale, focusing on land-atmosphere interactions.
• Temporal Scale: Event-based to seasonal/interannual, particularly concerning extreme events (drought-heatwaves) and warm season dynamics.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: A conceptual diagnostic roadmap is synthesized for interpreting coupling across observations and models (no specific model names are provided, but Earth system models are mentioned in the context of uncertainties).
• Data sources: A conceptual diagnostic roadmap is synthesized for interpreting coupling across observations (no specific data sources like satellite, reanalysis, or in-situ are provided, but clear-sky observations and sampling-depth limitations are mentioned in the context of uncertainties).

Main Results

• A unified LST-SM-ET-GPP (Land Surface Temperature, Soil Moisture, Evapotranspiration, Gross Primary Productivity) chain is proposed to integrate water availability, surface energy balance, and plant physiological processes.
• A conceptual diagnostic roadmap differentiates controls: radiative and advective controls in humid, energy-limited environments, versus a nonlinear regime transition governed by a critical soil moisture threshold in water-depleted systems.
• In moisture-limited regimes, even modest soil moisture declines can rapidly weaken evaporative cooling, amplify LST anomalies, and strongly suppress GPP.
• The dynamic reversal of dominant controlling factors across hydrothermal states and timescales is explained by the competitive regulation of stomatal conductance by atmospheric demand (vapor pressure deficit) and terrestrial supply (rootzone soil moisture).
• The steady-state coupling assumption may break down under extreme drought (flux "flooring") or structural buffering (deep root water uptake), defining applicability bounds for existing frameworks.

Contributions

• Provides an integrated, unified conceptual framework (LST-SM-ET-GPP chain) to bridge fragmented understandings of land-atmosphere coupling.
• Develops a novel diagnostic roadmap that accounts for dynamic shifts in controlling factors based on environmental conditions (energy-limited vs. moisture-limited).
• Identifies and explains the critical role of a soil moisture threshold in governing nonlinear regime transitions during water depletion.
• Highlights the limitations of existing diagnostic frameworks, particularly the breakdown of steady-state coupling assumptions under extreme conditions or structural buffering.
• Pinpoints key uncertainties and limitations in current assessments, including ET partitioning, clear-sky observation biases, sampling depth, and Earth system model errors.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Mi2026Warming,
  author = {Mi, Ruihan and Zhao, Xinyu and Ma, Ying and Zhang, Xiangyu and Bao, Leer and Jin, Bin},
  title = {Warming Reshapes Land-Atmosphere Coupling: The LST-SM-ET-GPP Framework},
  journal = {Atmosphere},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/atmos17040352},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos17040352}
}