Differentiating drought legacy effects on vegetation growth over the temperate Northern Hemisphere

0484689 - ÚVGZ 2019 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Wu, X. - Liu, H. - Li, X. - Ciais, P. - Babst, F. - Guo, W. - Zhang, C. - Magliulo, V. - Pavelka, Marian - Liu, S. - Huang, Y. - Wang, P. - Shi, C. D. - Ma, Y.
Differentiating drought legacy effects on vegetation growth over the temperate Northern Hemisphere.
Global Change Biology. Roč. 24, č. 1 (2018), s. 504-516. ISSN 1354-1013. E-ISSN 1365-2486
Research Infrastructure: CzeCOS II - 90061
Institutional support: RVO:86652079
Keywords : drought legacy effect * drought resilience * ecohydrological responses * extreme drought * plant functional groups * rooting system * stomatal conductance * vegetation growth
OECD category: Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)
Impact factor: 8.880, year: 2018

In view of future changes in climate, it is important to better understand how different plant functional groups (PFGs) respond to warmer and drier conditions, particularly in temperate regions where an increase in both the frequency and severity of drought is expected. The patterns and mechanisms of immediate and delayed impacts of extreme drought on vegetation growth remain poorly quantified. Using satellite measurements of vegetation greenness, in-situ tree-ring records, eddy-covariance CO2 and water flux measurements, and meta-analyses of source water of plant use among PFGs, we show that drought legacy effects on vegetation growth differ markedly between forests, shrubs and grass across diverse bioclimatic conditions over the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Deep-rooted forests exhibit a drought legacy response with reduced growth during up to 4 years after an extreme drought, whereas shrubs and grass have drought legacy effects of approximately 2 years and 1 year, respectively. Statistical analyses partly attribute the differences in drought legacy effects among PFGs to plant eco-hydrological properties (related to traits), including plant water use and hydraulic responses. These results can be used to improve the representation of drought response of different PFGs in land surface models, and assess their biogeochemical and biophysical feedbacks in response to a warmer and drier climate.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0279829