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A mesic maximum in biological water use demarcates biome sensitivity to aridity shifts

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, pages 1883–1888 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Biome function is largely governed by how efficiently available resources can be used and yet for water, the ratio of direct biological resource use (transpiration, E T) to total supply (annual precipitation, P) at ecosystem scales remains poorly characterized. Here, we synthesize field, remote sensing and ecohydrological modelling estimates to show that the biological water use fraction (E T/P) reaches a maximum under mesic conditions; that is, when evaporative demand (potential evapotranspiration, E P) slightly exceeds supplied precipitation. We estimate that this mesic maximum in E T/P occurs at an aridity index (defined as E P/P) between 1.3 and 1.9. The observed global average aridity of 1.8 falls within this range, suggesting that the biosphere is, on average, configured to transpire the largest possible fraction of global precipitation for the current climate. A unimodal E T/P distribution indicates that both dry regions subjected to increasing aridity and humid regions subjected to decreasing aridity will suffer declines in the fraction of precipitation that plants transpire for growth and metabolism. Given the uncertainties in the prediction of future biogeography, this framework provides a clear and concise determination of ecosystems' sensitivity to climatic shifts, as well as expected patterns in the amount of precipitation that ecosystems can effectively use.

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Fig. 1: Transpired fraction of rainfall.
Fig. 2: Peak plant water use across possible soil, climate and vegetation structures.
Fig. 3: Spatial patterns in aridity, transpiration and their inter-related sensitivity.

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Acknowledgements

S.P.G. acknowledges the financial support of the Unites States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX16AN13G). G.W.M. acknowledges the United States Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research programme at the Office of Science for financial support (DE-SC0010654). D.G.M. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under grant agreement number 715254 (DRY-2-DRY). We acknowledge A. Jaimes for assistance with data analysis. We also acknowledge K. Caylor, L. Wang and I. Rodriguez-Iturbe for some early suggestions on this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Stephen P. Good

  2. Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Georgianne W. Moore

  3. Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Diego G. Miralles

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  1. Stephen P. Good
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  3. Diego G. Miralles
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Contributions

S.P.G. designed the study with input from G.W.M. and D.G.M. S.P.G. and G.W.M. compiled the field observations. S.P.G. and D.G.M. provided the remote-sensing-based observations. S.P.G. conducted the minimalistic model simulations. All authors wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Stephen P. Good.

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Good, S.P., Moore, G.W. & Miralles, D.G. A mesic maximum in biological water use demarcates biome sensitivity to aridity shifts. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 1883–1888 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0371-8

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