Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Convergence across biomes to a common rain-use efficiency

Nature volume 429, pages 651–654 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Water availability limits plant growth and production in almost all terrestrial ecosystems1,2,3,4,5. However, biomes differ substantially in sensitivity of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) to between-year variation in precipitation6,7,8. Average rain-use efficiency (RUE; ANPP/precipitation) also varies between biomes, supposedly because of differences in vegetation structure and/or biogeochemical constraints8. Here we show that RUE decreases across biomes as mean annual precipitation increases. However, during the driest years at each site, there is convergence to a common maximum RUE (RUEmax) that is typical of arid ecosystems. RUEmax was also identified by experimentally altering the degree of limitation by water and other resources. Thus, in years when water is most limiting, deserts, grasslands and forests all exhibit the same rate of biomass production per unit rainfall, despite differences in physiognomy and site-level RUE. Global climate models9,10 predict increased between-year variability in precipitation, more frequent extreme drought events, and changes in temperature. Forecasts of future ecosystem behaviour should take into account this convergent feature of terrestrial biomes.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Between-year variation in production across a precipitation gradient and a maximum rain-use efficiency.
Figure 2: Hypothetical consequences of a maximum rain-use efficiency and evidence from experimental manipulations.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Rosenzweig, M. L. Net primary productivity of terrestrial communities: prediction from climatological data. Am. Nat. 102, 67–74 (1968)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Lieth, H. in Primary Productivity of the Biosphere (eds Lieth, H. & Whittaker, R. H.) 237–263 (Springer, New York, 1975)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Webb, W. L., Lauenroth, W. K., Szarek, S. R. & Kinerson, R. S. Primary production and abiotic controls in forests, grasslands, and desert ecosystems of the United States. Ecology 64, 134–151 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sala, O. E., Parton, W. J., Joyce, L. A. & Lauenroth, W. K. Primary production of the central grassland region of the United States. Ecology 69, 40–45 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Walter, H. Grassland, Savanne und Busch der arideren Teile Afrikas in ihrer okologischen Bedingtheit. Jb. Wiss. Bot. 87, 750–760 (1939)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Paruelo, J. M., Lauenroth, W. K., Burke, I. C. & Sala, O. E. Grassland precipitation–use efficiency varies across a resource gradient. Ecosystems 2, 64–68 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Knapp, A. K. & Smith, M. D. Variation among biomass in temporal dynamics of aboveground primary production. Science 291, 481–484 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Veron, S. V., Paruelo, J. M., Sala, O. E. & Lauenroth, W. K. Environmental controls of primary production in agricultural systems of the Argentine Pampas. Ecosystems 5, 625–635 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. IPCC . Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report. A Contribution of Working Groups I, II, and III to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Watson, R. T. and Core Writing Team) (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2001)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Easterling, D. R. et al. Climate extremes: Observations, modeling, and impacts. Science 289, 2068–2074 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Schimel, D. S. et al. Recent patterns and mechanisms of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems. Nature 414, 169–172 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Noy-Meir, I. Desert ecosystems: environment and producers. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 4, 51–58 (1973)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Smith, S. D. et al. Elevated CO2 increases productivity and invasive species success in an arid ecosystem. Nature 408, 79–82 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Shaw, M. R. et al. Grassland responses to global environmental changes suppressed by elevated CO2 . Science 298, 1987–1990 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Lauenroth, W. K. & Sala, O. E. Long-term forage production of North American shortgrass steppe. Ecol. Appl. 2, 397–403 (1992)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Grime, J. P. Evidence for existence of 3 primary strategies in plants and its relevance to ecological and evolutionary theory. Am. Nat. 111, 1169–1194 (1977)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Ehleringer, J. R. in Terrestrial Global Productivity (eds Roy, J., Saugier, B. & Mooney, H. A.) 345–362 (Academic, San Diego, 2001)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  18. Seastedt, T. R. & Knapp, A. K. Consequences of nonequilibrium resource availability across multiple time scales: the transient maxima hypothesis. Am. Nat. 141, 421–433 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Austin, A. T. & Vitousek, P. M. Nutrient dynamics on a precipitation gradient in Hawai'i. Oecologia 113, 519–529 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Chapin, F. S. III, Matson, P. A. & Mooney, H. A. Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology (Springer, New York, 2002)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Knapp, A. K. et al. Rainfall variability, carbon cycling, and plant species diversity in a mesic grassland. Science 298, 2202–2205 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Schlesinger, W. H. Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change (Academic, San Diego, 1997)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Smith, S. D., Monson, R. K. & Anderson, J. E. Physiological Ecology of North American Desert Plants (Springer, New York, 1997)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  24. Aber, J. et al. Nitrogen saturation in temperate forest ecosystems. Bioscience 48, 921–934 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Ehleringer, J. R. & Mooney, H. A. in Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology (New Series) vol 12C (eds Lange, O. L., Nobel, P. S., Osmond, C. B. & Ziegler, H.) 205–231 (Springer, New York, 1983)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Schlesinger, W. H. et al. Biological feedbacks in global desertification. Science 247, 1043–1048 (1990)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Reynolds, J. F., Virginia, R. A., Kemp, P. R., de Soyza, A. G. & Tremmel, D. C. Impact of drought on desert shrubs: effects of seasonality and degree of resource island development. Ecol. Monogr. 69, 69–106 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Le Houerou, H. N., Bingham, R. L. & Skerbek, W. Relationship between the variability of primary production and the variability of annual precipitation in world arid lands. J. Arid Environ. 15, 1–18 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Turner, F. B. & Randall, D. C. Net production by shrubs and winter annuals in southern Nevada. J. Arid Environ. 17, 23–36 (1989)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Jobbagy, E. G. & Sala, O. E. Controls of grass and shrub aboveground production in the Patagonian steppe. Ecol. Appl. 10, 541–549 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank J. Bronstein, J. Cable, G. Davidowitz, A. Eilts, B. Enquist, D. Ignace, A. Kerkhoff, D. Potts, D. Schimel, L. Venable and M. Pavao-Zuckerman for comments on the manuscript. This work derived from an NCEAS working group, PrecipNet (principal investigator M.E.L.), supported by the National Science Foundation, the University of California, and the Santa Barbara campus. We acknowledge the support of the United States Department of Energy, the National Park Service, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Travis E. Huxman and Melinda D. Smith: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, USA

    Travis E. Huxman

  2. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, California, 93101, USA

    Melinda D. Smith

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511, USA

    Melinda D. Smith

  4. Natural Resources Research Institute, Duluth, Minnesota, 55811, USA

    Philip A. Fay

  5. Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80523, USA

    Alan K. Knapp

  6. Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    M. Rebecca Shaw

  7. Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, California, 95064, Santa Cruz, USA

    Michael E. Loik & Brent M. Haddad

  8. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89154, USA

    Stanley D. Smith

  9. Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, 79409, USA

    David T. Tissue & John C. Zak

  10. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37919, USA

    Jake F. Weltzin

  11. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA

    William T. Pockman

  12. Department of Ecology and IFEVA, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, C1417DSE, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Osvaldo E. Sala

  13. Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    John Harte

  14. Biological Sciences and Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011, USA

    George W. Koch

  15. Biosphere 2 Center, Columbia University, Oracle, Arizona, 85623, USA

    Susan Schwinning

  16. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA

    Eric E. Small

  17. Renewable Resources and Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, 82071, USA

    David G. Williams

Authors
  1. Travis E. Huxman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Melinda D. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Philip A. Fay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Alan K. Knapp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M. Rebecca Shaw
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Michael E. Loik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Stanley D. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. David T. Tissue
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. John C. Zak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Jake F. Weltzin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. William T. Pockman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Osvaldo E. Sala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Brent M. Haddad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. John Harte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. George W. Koch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Susan Schwinning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Eric E. Small
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. David G. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Travis E. Huxman or Melinda D. Smith.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Tables

Table 1) Site information, mean annual precipitation, mean annual net primary production for the 14 study sites; Table 2) Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis of aboveground net primary production using annual precipitation, measures of intra-annual precipitation variability, maximum growing season temperature, and previous yr ANPP, for the 14 study sites categorized by their long-term mean ANPP. (DOC 78 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Huxman, T., Smith, M., Fay, P. et al. Convergence across biomes to a common rain-use efficiency. Nature 429, 651–654 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02561

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02561

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing