Abstract
Vegetation resistance and resilience to drought are linked to the stability of terrestrial ecosystems under climate change. However, the factors driving the spatial heterogeneity in drought resistance and resilience remain poorly understood. In the study, we utilized multiple satellite-derived vegetation indices to calculate and analyze changes in drought resistance and resilience across various biomes worldwide. Results indicated that drought resistance showed a significant increase with the increase in water availability, but no significant relationship was observed between drought resistance and energy. In contrast, drought resilience exhibited a significant increase with an increase in energy rather than in water. Furthermore, a negative correlation was observed between drought resistance and resilience across different biomes worldwide, indicating a trade-off between resistance and resilience. However, the strength of the negative correlation varied based on water and energy conditions. These findings provide compelling evidence that water and energy co-regulated the spatial heterogeneity in drought resistance and resilience across the globe. The robust linear relationship between drought resistance and resilience and available water and energy demonstrated in our study is critical to accurately predicting and assessing the impact of climate change on vegetation growth and terrestrial carbon cycling in the future.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 114007 |
| Journal | Environmental Research Letters |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2023 |
Funding
This study is partly supported by the Guangdong Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar, China (2023B1515020116), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52179031), the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFC3001000), and the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology (2019ZT08G090). J Mao was supported by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Scientific Focus Area (TES SFA) project funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725.
Keywords
- climate change
- drought
- energy
- resilience
- resistance
- spatial heterogeneity
- water