IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v10y2020i7d10.1038_s41558-020-0781-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Plant hydraulics accentuates the effect of atmospheric moisture stress on transpiration

Author

Listed:
  • Yanlan Liu

    (Stanford University)

  • Mukesh Kumar

    (University of Alabama)

  • Gabriel G. Katul

    (Duke University)

  • Xue Feng

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Alexandra G. Konings

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

Transpiration, the dominant component of terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET), directly connects the water, energy and carbon cycles and is typically restricted by soil and atmospheric (for example, the vapour pressure deficit (VPD)) moisture stresses through plant hydraulic processes. These sources of stress are likely to diverge under climate change, with a globally enhanced VPD but more variable and uncertain changes in soil moisture. Here, using a model–data fusion approach, we demonstrate that the common empirical approach used in most Earth system models to evaluate the ET response to soil moisture and VPD, which neglects plant hydraulics, underestimates ET sensitivity to VPD and compensates by overestimating the sensitivity to soil moisture stress. A hydraulic model that describes water transport through the plant better captures ET under high VPD conditions for wide-ranging soil moisture states. These findings highlight the central role of plant hydraulics in regulating the increasing importance of atmospheric moisture stress on biosphere–atmosphere interactions under elevated temperatures.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanlan Liu & Mukesh Kumar & Gabriel G. Katul & Xue Feng & Alexandra G. Konings, 2020. "Plant hydraulics accentuates the effect of atmospheric moisture stress on transpiration," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 10(7), pages 691-695, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:10:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-020-0781-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-0781-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0781-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-020-0781-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiangzhong Luo & Trevor F. Keenan, 2022. "Tropical extreme droughts drive long-term increase in atmospheric CO2 growth rate variability," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Chen, Zheng & Liu, Jieyu & Li, Li & Wu, Yongping & Feng, Guolin & Qian, Zhonghua & Sun, Gui-Quan, 2022. "Effects of climate change on vegetation patterns in Hulun Buir Grassland," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 597(C).
    3. Zhu, Jie & Chen, Shanghong & Zhang, Qingwen & Mei, Xurong, 2023. "Multi-year vertical and life cycle impacts of C-N management on soil moisture regimes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    4. Liao, Qi & Ding, Risheng & Du, Taisheng & Kang, Shaozhong & Tong, Ling & Li, Sien, 2022. "Stomatal conductance drives variations of yield and water use of maize under water and nitrogen stress," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    5. Yao, Yuxia & Liao, Xingliang & Xiao, Junlan & He, Qiulan & Shi, Weiyu, 2023. "The sensitivity of maize evapotranspiration to vapor pressure deficit and soil moisture with lagged effects under extreme drought in Southwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    6. Yao Zhang & Pierre Gentine & Xiangzhong Luo & Xu Lian & Yanlan Liu & Sha Zhou & Anna M. Michalak & Wu Sun & Joshua B. Fisher & Shilong Piao & Trevor F. Keenan, 2022. "Increasing sensitivity of dryland vegetation greenness to precipitation due to rising atmospheric CO2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:10:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-020-0781-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.