Wang et al. (2026) Declining Sensitivity and Increasing Resistance Time of Ecosystem Water Use Efficiency to Meteorological Drought

Identification

• Journal: Hydrology and earth system sciences
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-10
• Authors: Zijun Wang, Rong Wu, Yangyang Liu, Zhaoying Zhang, Zhongming Wen, Zhenqian Wang, Stephen A. Sitch, Wenping Yuan
• DOI: 10.5194/hess-30-4985-2026

Research Groups

• College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
• State Key Laboratory of Water Resources Engineering and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
• College of Grassland Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
• Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, International Institute for Earth System Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China
• Department of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm 10691, Sweden
• Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
• Institute of Carbon Neutrality, Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

Short Summary

This study investigates the spatiotemporal patterns of the water-use efficiency (WUE) - meteorological drought coupling relationship across global terrestrial ecosystems from 1982 to 2018. The results indicate a weakening of the coupling between WUE and meteorological drought, with decreasing sensitivity of WUE to drought and increasing resistance time.

Objective

• Investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of the WUE - meteorological drought coupling relationship across global terrestrial ecosystems.
• Quantify the contributions of CO2 fertilization, climate change (CLI), and land-use change (LCC) to this coupling relationship.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global terrestrial ecosystems with a spatial resolution of 0.25°.
• Temporal Scale: 1982-2018 with an 18-year moving window.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: TRENDY v12 multi-model ensemble, including E3SM, EDv3, JSBACH, JULES, LPJ-GUESS, SDGVM, and VISIT.
• Data sources: Satellite-derived and model-simulated WUE, SPEI, FLUXNET data, CRU climate data, GLEAM ET data.

Main Results

• The sensitivity of WUE to meteorological drought decreased at a rate of -0.0003 yr⁻¹ (p < 0.01).
• The resistance time increased at a rate of 0.0155 month yr⁻¹ (p < 0.01).
• CO2 fertilization was the primary factor contributing to the weakening of the coupling relationship.
• Surface soil moisture exhibited nearly opposite effects and significant threshold effects on Rmax and Topt.

Contributions

• This study highlights the weakened coupling between WUE and meteorological drought, suggesting that vegetation's carbon-water trade-off is evolving toward drought adaptation.
• The results provide valuable insights for understanding the adaptive strategies of vegetation in response to climate change.

Funding

• Not specified.

Citation

@article{Wang2026Declining,
  author = {Wang, Zijun and Wu, Rong and Liu, Yangyang and Zhang, Zhaoying and Wen, Zhongming and Wang, Zhenqian and Sitch, Stephen A. and Yuan, Wenping},
  title = {Declining Sensitivity and Increasing Resistance Time of Ecosystem Water Use Efficiency to Meteorological Drought},
  journal = {Hydrology and earth system sciences},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/hess-30-4985-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4985-2026}
}