Vegetation as the catalyst for water circulation on global terrestrial ecosystem

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Climate Science
• Ecology

Background:

• Global climate change intensifies the global water cycle, increasing evaporation and precipitation.
• Expanding vegetation due to climate change and human activity creates water resource conflicts between ecosystems and humans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To clarify how terrestrial ecosystem evapotranspiration responds to global precipitation and vegetation.
• To improve understanding and prediction of global ecosystem energy, water, and carbon budgets under climate change.

Main Methods:

• Utilized remote sensing data for evapotranspiration, precipitation, and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF).
• Employed correlation, partial correlation, multiple linear regression, and binning analyses.
• Decoupled interaction mechanisms between evapotranspiration, precipitation, and vegetation in linear and nonlinear scenarios.

Main Results:

• Vegetation acts as a crucial regulator of the relationship between climate change and the water-carbon-energy cycle.
• Vegetation is a key parameter participating in the entire water cycle process.
• Increased vegetation productivity and photosynthesis drive evapotranspiration in vegetated areas; increased precipitation drives it in non-vegetated areas.

Conclusions:

• Vegetation plays a vital role in modulating climate change impacts on the water-carbon-energy cycle.
• Understanding vegetation's role is essential for predicting future water resource availability and ecosystem function.
• Distinct drivers (vegetation productivity vs. precipitation) influence evapotranspiration in different land cover types.