Disentangling Effects of Vegetation Structure and Physiology on Land–Atmosphere Coupling

Wantong Li; Mirco Migliavacca; Diego G. Miralles; Markus Reichstein; William R. L. Anderegg; Hui Yang; Rene Orth

doi:10.1111/gcb.70035

journal article Open Access Jan 01, 2025

Disentangling Effects of Vegetation Structure and Physiology on Land–Atmosphere Coupling

Wantong Li

Mirco Migliavacca

Diego G. Miralles

Markus Reichstein

William R. L. Anderegg

Hui Yang

Rene Orth

Global Change Biology Vol. 31 No. 1 · Wiley

View at Publisher Save 10.1111/gcb.70035

Abstract

ABSTRACTTerrestrial vegetation is a key component of the Earth system, regulating the exchange of carbon, water, and energy between land and atmosphere. Vegetation affects soil moisture dynamics by absorbing and transpiring soil water, thus modulating land–atmosphere interactions. Moreover, changes in vegetation structure (e.g., leaf area index) and physiology (e.g., stomatal regulation), due to climate change and forest management, also influence land–atmosphere interactions. However, the relative roles of vegetation structure and physiology in modulating land–atmosphere interactions are not well understood globally. Here, we investigate the contributions of vegetation structure and physiology to the coupling between soil moisture (SM) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) while also considering the contributions of influential hydro‐meteorological variables. We focus on periods when SM is below normal in the growing season to explicitly study the regulation of vegetation on SM–VPD coupling during soil dryness. We use an explainable machine learning approach to quantify and study the sensitivity of SM–VPD coupling to vegetation variables. We find that vegetation structure and physiology exert strong control on SM–VPD coupling in cold and temperate regions in the Northern Hemisphere. Vegetation structure and physiology show similar and predominant negative sensitivity on SM–VPD coupling, with increases of vegetation dynamics leading to stronger negative SM–VPD coupling. Our analysis based on Earth system model simulations reveals that models largely reproduce the effect of vegetation physiology on SM–VPD coupling, but they misrepresent the role of vegetation structure. This way, our results guide model development and highlight that the deeper understanding of the roles of vegetation structure and physiology serves as a prerequisite to more accurate projections of future climate and ecosystems.

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Details

Published: Jan 01, 2025
Vol/Issue: 31(1)
License: View

Authors

W

Wantong Li

Department of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena Germany

M

Mirco Migliavacca

European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) Ispra Varese Italy

D

Diego G. Miralles

Hydro‐Climate Extremes Lab (H‐CEL), Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Ghent University Ghent Belgium

M

Markus Reichstein

Department of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena Germany; Integrative Center for Biodiversity Research (iDIV) Leipzig Germany

W

William R. L. Anderegg

School of Biological Sciences University of Utah Salt Lake City Utah USA; Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy University of Utah Salt Lake City Utah USA

H

Hui Yang

Department of Ecology Peking University Beijing China

R

Rene Orth

Department of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena Germany; Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Award: 391059971

Cite This Article

Wantong Li, Mirco Migliavacca, Diego G. Miralles, et al. (2025). Disentangling Effects of Vegetation Structure and Physiology on Land–Atmosphere Coupling. Global Change Biology, 31(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70035

Disentangling Effects of Vegetation Structure and Physiology on Land–Atmosphere Coupling

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