Divergent responses of ecosystem water use efficiency to drought timing over Northern Eurasia

Abstract

Warming has resulted in increases in frequency, intensity and/or duration of droughts in most land regions over the globe. Nevertheless, knowledge on how ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) responds to extreme drought stress and whether the responses are affected by drought timing is still limited. In this study, we examined the changes in ecosystem WUE under extreme drought years over Northern Eurasia during 1982-2011 and further assessed WUE responses to droughts with separate groupings designed to characterize the timing of extreme drought stress. We found that drought timing indeed influenced the responses of ecosystem WUE under extreme drought years. Negative impacts of extreme drought stress during the dry season on ecosystem WUE were more remarkable than those from extreme drought stress during the wet season. Particularly, impacts of droughts on ecosystem carbon-water interactions differed among ecosystem types due to the specific hydrothermal condition of each biome. The information provided by our analyses plays an importance role in identifying water use strategies of terrestrial vegetation in response to drought stress and will help improve our understanding and predictions of the response of ecosystem WUE to global environmental change.