Global convergence but regional disparity in the hydrological resilience of ecosystems and watersheds to drought

Baolin Xue; Guoqiang Wang; Jingfeng Xiao; David Helman; Wenchao Sun; Jianhua Wang; Tingxi Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125589

Global convergence but regional disparity in the hydrological resilience of ecosystems and watersheds to drought

Baolin Xue, Guoqiang Wang^*, Jingfeng Xiao, David Helman, Wenchao Sun, Jianhua Wang, Tingxi Liu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Drought is a major climate disturbance that can lower vegetation productivity and induce widespread vegetation die-off, which in turn can have a profound effect on the water cycle. Therefore, quantification of vegetation-specific responses to drought is essential to predict the impacts of climate change on ecosystem services. We used two previously-suggested quantitative metrics – dynamic deviation (d) and elasticity (e) based on the Budyko framework –to evaluate site- and watershed-level hydrological resilience of different plant functional types (PFTs) to drought. By using data from 41 FLUXNET sites and 2275 watersheds, we found a global convergence in hydrological resilience to drought across a variety of PFTs. Hydrological resilience of vegetation was related to drought intensity and water use efficiency. A greater hydrological resilience was found in PTFs in drier areas than in wetter areas, while this greater hydrological resilience was related to the coefficient of variation in precipitation. We also found that PFTs with a larger water use efficiency had higher hydrological resilience, particularly in drier regions, indicating adaptation strategies to changes in local climate conditions. Our findings can shed light on how ecosystems and watersheds dominated by different PFTs will respond to future climatic change and inform water resources management.

Original language	American English
Article number	125589
Journal	Journal of Hydrology
Volume	591
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125589
State	Published - Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Major Science and Technology Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 31670451) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2017NT18). D.H. is a US-Israel Fulbright Fellow 2018/2019. We are grateful for the constructive discussions, comments and helpful edits from Dr. Irena Creed (University of Saskatchewan, Canada). This work used eddy covariance data acquired and shared by the FLUXNET community, including these networks: AmeriFlux, AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada, GreenGrass, ICOS, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux-TERN, TCOS-Siberia, and USCCC. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data are provided by ECMWF and processed by LSCE. The Fluxnet eddy covariance data processing and harmonization was carried out by the European Fluxes Database Cluster, AmeriFlux Management Project, and Fluxdata project of Fluxnet, with the support of CDIAC and ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Center, and the OzFlux, ChinaFlux and AsiaFlux offices. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on our manuscript.

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Major Science and Technology Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 31670451 ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2017NT18). D.H. is a US-Israel Fulbright Fellow 2018/2019. We are grateful for the constructive discussions, comments and helpful edits from Dr. Irena Creed (University of Saskatchewan, Canada). This work used eddy covariance data acquired and shared by the FLUXNET community, including these networks: AmeriFlux, AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada, GreenGrass, ICOS, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux-TERN, TCOS-Siberia, and USCCC. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data are provided by ECMWF and processed by LSCE. The Fluxnet eddy covariance data processing and harmonization was carried out by the European Fluxes Database Cluster, AmeriFlux Management Project, and Fluxdata project of Fluxnet, with the support of CDIAC and ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Center, and the OzFlux, ChinaFlux and AsiaFlux offices. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on our manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

Budyko method
Drought
Ecosystems
Fluxnet
Resilience
Watershed

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125589

Cite this

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title = "Global convergence but regional disparity in the hydrological resilience of ecosystems and watersheds to drought",

abstract = "Drought is a major climate disturbance that can lower vegetation productivity and induce widespread vegetation die-off, which in turn can have a profound effect on the water cycle. Therefore, quantification of vegetation-specific responses to drought is essential to predict the impacts of climate change on ecosystem services. We used two previously-suggested quantitative metrics – dynamic deviation (d) and elasticity (e) based on the Budyko framework –to evaluate site- and watershed-level hydrological resilience of different plant functional types (PFTs) to drought. By using data from 41 FLUXNET sites and 2275 watersheds, we found a global convergence in hydrological resilience to drought across a variety of PFTs. Hydrological resilience of vegetation was related to drought intensity and water use efficiency. A greater hydrological resilience was found in PTFs in drier areas than in wetter areas, while this greater hydrological resilience was related to the coefficient of variation in precipitation. We also found that PFTs with a larger water use efficiency had higher hydrological resilience, particularly in drier regions, indicating adaptation strategies to changes in local climate conditions. Our findings can shed light on how ecosystems and watersheds dominated by different PFTs will respond to future climatic change and inform water resources management.",

keywords = "Budyko method, Drought, Ecosystems, Fluxnet, Resilience, Watershed",

author = "Baolin Xue and Guoqiang Wang and Jingfeng Xiao and David Helman and Wenchao Sun and Jianhua Wang and Tingxi Liu",

note = "Funding Information: This study was supported by the Major Science and Technology Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 31670451) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2017NT18). D.H. is a US-Israel Fulbright Fellow 2018/2019. We are grateful for the constructive discussions, comments and helpful edits from Dr. Irena Creed (University of Saskatchewan, Canada). This work used eddy covariance data acquired and shared by the FLUXNET community, including these networks: AmeriFlux, AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada, GreenGrass, ICOS, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux-TERN, TCOS-Siberia, and USCCC. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data are provided by ECMWF and processed by LSCE. The Fluxnet eddy covariance data processing and harmonization was carried out by the European Fluxes Database Cluster, AmeriFlux Management Project, and Fluxdata project of Fluxnet, with the support of CDIAC and ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Center, and the OzFlux, ChinaFlux and AsiaFlux offices. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on our manuscript. Funding Information: This study was supported by the Major Science and Technology Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 31670451 ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2017NT18). D.H. is a US-Israel Fulbright Fellow 2018/2019. We are grateful for the constructive discussions, comments and helpful edits from Dr. Irena Creed (University of Saskatchewan, Canada). This work used eddy covariance data acquired and shared by the FLUXNET community, including these networks: AmeriFlux, AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada, GreenGrass, ICOS, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux-TERN, TCOS-Siberia, and USCCC. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data are provided by ECMWF and processed by LSCE. The Fluxnet eddy covariance data processing and harmonization was carried out by the European Fluxes Database Cluster, AmeriFlux Management Project, and Fluxdata project of Fluxnet, with the support of CDIAC and ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Center, and the OzFlux, ChinaFlux and AsiaFlux offices. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on our manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier B.V.",

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AU - Wang, Jianhua

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N2 - Drought is a major climate disturbance that can lower vegetation productivity and induce widespread vegetation die-off, which in turn can have a profound effect on the water cycle. Therefore, quantification of vegetation-specific responses to drought is essential to predict the impacts of climate change on ecosystem services. We used two previously-suggested quantitative metrics – dynamic deviation (d) and elasticity (e) based on the Budyko framework –to evaluate site- and watershed-level hydrological resilience of different plant functional types (PFTs) to drought. By using data from 41 FLUXNET sites and 2275 watersheds, we found a global convergence in hydrological resilience to drought across a variety of PFTs. Hydrological resilience of vegetation was related to drought intensity and water use efficiency. A greater hydrological resilience was found in PTFs in drier areas than in wetter areas, while this greater hydrological resilience was related to the coefficient of variation in precipitation. We also found that PFTs with a larger water use efficiency had higher hydrological resilience, particularly in drier regions, indicating adaptation strategies to changes in local climate conditions. Our findings can shed light on how ecosystems and watersheds dominated by different PFTs will respond to future climatic change and inform water resources management.

AB - Drought is a major climate disturbance that can lower vegetation productivity and induce widespread vegetation die-off, which in turn can have a profound effect on the water cycle. Therefore, quantification of vegetation-specific responses to drought is essential to predict the impacts of climate change on ecosystem services. We used two previously-suggested quantitative metrics – dynamic deviation (d) and elasticity (e) based on the Budyko framework –to evaluate site- and watershed-level hydrological resilience of different plant functional types (PFTs) to drought. By using data from 41 FLUXNET sites and 2275 watersheds, we found a global convergence in hydrological resilience to drought across a variety of PFTs. Hydrological resilience of vegetation was related to drought intensity and water use efficiency. A greater hydrological resilience was found in PTFs in drier areas than in wetter areas, while this greater hydrological resilience was related to the coefficient of variation in precipitation. We also found that PFTs with a larger water use efficiency had higher hydrological resilience, particularly in drier regions, indicating adaptation strategies to changes in local climate conditions. Our findings can shed light on how ecosystems and watersheds dominated by different PFTs will respond to future climatic change and inform water resources management.

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Global convergence but regional disparity in the hydrological resilience of ecosystems and watersheds to drought

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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