articleNature CommunicationsJun 6, 2024GOLD OA

Global critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines · +24 more institutions

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Abstract

Abstract During extensive periods without rain, known as dry-downs, decreasing soil moisture (SM) induces plant water stress at the point when it limits evapotranspiration, defining a critical SM threshold (θ crit ). Better quantification of θ crit is needed for improving future projections of climate and water resources, food production, and ecosystem vulnerability. Here, we combine systematic satellite observations of the diurnal amplitude of land surface temperature (dLST) and SM during dry-downs, corroborated by in-situ data from flux towers, to generate the observation-based global map of θ crit . We find an average global θ crit of 0.19 m 3 /m 3 , varying from 0.12 m 3 /m 3 in arid ecosystems to 0.26 m 3…

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