DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Response of Water Use Efficiency to Global Environmental Change Based on Output From Terrestrial Biosphere Models

Abstract

Water use efficiency (WUE), defined as the ratio of gross primary productivity and evapotranspiration at the ecosystem scale, is a critical variable linking the carbon and water cycles. Incorporating a dependency on vapor pressure deficit, apparent underlying WUE (uWUE) provides a better indicator of how terrestrial ecosystems respond to environmental changes than other WUE formulations. Here we used 20th century simulations from four terrestrial biosphere models to develop a novel variance decomposition method. With this method, we attributed variations in apparent uWUE to both the trend and interannual variation of environmental drivers. The secular increase in atmospheric CO2 explained a clear majority of total variation (66 ± 32%: mean ± one standard deviation), followed by positive trends in nitrogen deposition and climate, as well as a negative trend in land use change. In contrast, interannual variation was mostly driven by interannual climate variability. To analyze the mechanism of the CO2 effect, we partitioned the apparent uWUE into the transpiration ratio (transpiration over evapotranspiration) and potential uWUE. The relative increase in potential uWUE parallels that of CO2, but this direct CO2 effect was offset by 20 ± 4% by changes in ecosystem structure, that is, leaf area index for different vegetation types. The decrease in transpiration duemore » to stomatal closure with rising CO2 was reduced by 84% by an increase in leaf area index, resulting in small changes in the transpiration ratio. CO2 concentration thus plays a dominant role in driving apparent uWUE variations over time, but its role differs for the two constituent components: potential uWUE and transpiration.« less

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [11]; ORCiD logo [12]; ORCiD logo [13]; ORCiD logo [12]; ORCiD logo [12]; ORCiD logo [14]; ORCiD logo [12];  [15];  [1]
  1. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
  2. Griffith Univ., Nathan Queensland (Australia)
  3. Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States); Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  4. Lab. des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
  5. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
  6. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States)
  7. Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA (United States)
  8. California State Uni., Monterey Bay, Seasid, CA (United States)
  9. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
  10. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  11. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  12. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  13. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)
  14. Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan)
  15. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Qinghai Univ., Xining (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1409248
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1408787; OSTI ID: 1563939
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 31; Journal Issue: N/A; Journal ID: ISSN 0886-6236
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Zhou, Sha, Yu, Bofu, Schwalm, Christopher R., Ciais, Philippe, Zhang, Yao, Fisher, Joshua B., Michalak, Anna M., Wang, Weile, Poulter, Benjamin, Huntzinger, Deborah N., Niu, Shuli, Mao, Jiafu, Jain, Atul, Ricciuto, Daniel M., Shi, Xiaoying, Ito, Akihiko, Wei, Yaxing, Huang, Yuefei, and Wang, Guangqian. Response of Water Use Efficiency to Global Environmental Change Based on Output From Terrestrial Biosphere Models. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1002/2017GB005733.
Zhou, Sha, Yu, Bofu, Schwalm, Christopher R., Ciais, Philippe, Zhang, Yao, Fisher, Joshua B., Michalak, Anna M., Wang, Weile, Poulter, Benjamin, Huntzinger, Deborah N., Niu, Shuli, Mao, Jiafu, Jain, Atul, Ricciuto, Daniel M., Shi, Xiaoying, Ito, Akihiko, Wei, Yaxing, Huang, Yuefei, & Wang, Guangqian. Response of Water Use Efficiency to Global Environmental Change Based on Output From Terrestrial Biosphere Models. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GB005733
Zhou, Sha, Yu, Bofu, Schwalm, Christopher R., Ciais, Philippe, Zhang, Yao, Fisher, Joshua B., Michalak, Anna M., Wang, Weile, Poulter, Benjamin, Huntzinger, Deborah N., Niu, Shuli, Mao, Jiafu, Jain, Atul, Ricciuto, Daniel M., Shi, Xiaoying, Ito, Akihiko, Wei, Yaxing, Huang, Yuefei, and Wang, Guangqian. Wed . "Response of Water Use Efficiency to Global Environmental Change Based on Output From Terrestrial Biosphere Models". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GB005733. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1409248.
@article{osti_1409248,
title = {Response of Water Use Efficiency to Global Environmental Change Based on Output From Terrestrial Biosphere Models},
author = {Zhou, Sha and Yu, Bofu and Schwalm, Christopher R. and Ciais, Philippe and Zhang, Yao and Fisher, Joshua B. and Michalak, Anna M. and Wang, Weile and Poulter, Benjamin and Huntzinger, Deborah N. and Niu, Shuli and Mao, Jiafu and Jain, Atul and Ricciuto, Daniel M. and Shi, Xiaoying and Ito, Akihiko and Wei, Yaxing and Huang, Yuefei and Wang, Guangqian},
abstractNote = {Water use efficiency (WUE), defined as the ratio of gross primary productivity and evapotranspiration at the ecosystem scale, is a critical variable linking the carbon and water cycles. Incorporating a dependency on vapor pressure deficit, apparent underlying WUE (uWUE) provides a better indicator of how terrestrial ecosystems respond to environmental changes than other WUE formulations. Here we used 20th century simulations from four terrestrial biosphere models to develop a novel variance decomposition method. With this method, we attributed variations in apparent uWUE to both the trend and interannual variation of environmental drivers. The secular increase in atmospheric CO2 explained a clear majority of total variation (66 ± 32%: mean ± one standard deviation), followed by positive trends in nitrogen deposition and climate, as well as a negative trend in land use change. In contrast, interannual variation was mostly driven by interannual climate variability. To analyze the mechanism of the CO2 effect, we partitioned the apparent uWUE into the transpiration ratio (transpiration over evapotranspiration) and potential uWUE. The relative increase in potential uWUE parallels that of CO2, but this direct CO2 effect was offset by 20 ± 4% by changes in ecosystem structure, that is, leaf area index for different vegetation types. The decrease in transpiration due to stomatal closure with rising CO2 was reduced by 84% by an increase in leaf area index, resulting in small changes in the transpiration ratio. CO2 concentration thus plays a dominant role in driving apparent uWUE variations over time, but its role differs for the two constituent components: potential uWUE and transpiration.},
doi = {10.1002/2017GB005733},
journal = {Global Biogeochemical Cycles},
number = N/A,
volume = 31,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Oct 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Wed Oct 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 57 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Responses of global terrestrial evapotranspiration to climate change and increasing atmospheric CO 2 in the 21st century
journal, January 2015

  • Pan, Shufen; Tian, Hanqin; Dangal, Shree R. S.
  • Earth's Future, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014EF000263

Temporal and among-site variability of inherent water use efficiency at the ecosystem level: VARIABILITY OF INHERENT WUE
journal, June 2009

  • Beer, C.; Ciais, P.; Reichstein, M.
  • Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 23, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1029/2008GB003233

Remote Sensing Evaluation of CLM4 GPP for the Period 2000–09
journal, August 2012


Forest water use and water use efficiency at elevated CO 2 : a model-data intercomparison at two contrasting temperate forest FACE sites
journal, March 2013

  • De Kauwe, Martin G.; Medlyn, Belinda E.; Zaehle, Sönke
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 19, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12164

The effects of land use and climate change on the carbon cycle of E urope over the past 500 years
journal, November 2011


The impact of global land-cover change on the terrestrial water cycle
journal, October 2012

  • Sterling, Shannon M.; Ducharne, Agnès; Polcher, Jan
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 3, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1690

Increased water-use efficiency during the 20th century did not translate into enhanced tree growth: Tree growth in the 20th century
journal, November 2010


Impact of doubled CO 2 on global-scale leaf area index and evapotranspiration: Conflicting stomatal conductance and LAI responses
journal, January 2002


Evaluating runoff simulations from the Community Land Model 4.0 using observations from flux towers and a mountainous watershed: EVALUATING RUNOFF SIMULATIONS FROM CLM4
journal, December 2011

  • Li, Hongyi; Huang, Maoyi; Wigmosta, Mark S.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 116, Issue D24
  • DOI: 10.1029/2011JD016276

Spatial variability and temporal trends in water-use efficiency of European forests
journal, September 2014

  • Saurer, Matthias; Spahni, Renato; Frank, David C.
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 20, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12717

Water-use efficiency and transpiration across European forests during the Anthropocene
journal, May 2015

  • Frank, D. C.; Poulter, B.; Saurer, M.
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 5, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2614

The North American Carbon Program Multi-Scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 1: Overview and experimental design
journal, January 2013

  • Huntzinger, D. N.; Schwalm, C.; Michalak, A. M.
  • Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 6, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmd-6-2121-2013

Enhanced nitrogen deposition over China
journal, February 2013


Change in terrestrial ecosystem water-use efficiency over the last three decades
journal, March 2015

  • Huang, Mengtian; Piao, Shilong; Sun, Yan
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 21, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12873

Evaluating the effects of future climate change and elevated CO2 on the water use efficiency in terrestrial ecosystems of China
journal, July 2011


Estimating regression models with unknown break-points
journal, January 2003

  • Muggeo, Vito M. R.
  • Statistics in Medicine, Vol. 22, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1002/sim.1545

Increased influence of nitrogen limitation on CO2 emissions from future land use and land use change
journal, September 2015

  • Meiyappan, Prasanth; Jain, Atul K.; House, Joanna I.
  • Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 29, Issue 9, p. 1524-1548
  • DOI: 10.1002/2015GB005086

The effect of vapor pressure deficit on water use efficiency at the subdaily time scale: Underlying water use efficiency
journal, July 2014

  • Zhou, Sha; Yu, Bofu; Huang, Yuefei
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 14
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014GL060741

Changes in climate and land use have a larger direct impact than rising CO2 on global river runoff trends
journal, September 2007

  • Piao, S.; Friedlingstein, P.; Ciais, P.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 104, Issue 39
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707213104

The response of ecosystem water‐use efficiency to rising atmospheric CO 2 concentrations: sensitivity and large‐scale biogeochemical implications
journal, November 2016

  • Knauer, Jürgen; Zaehle, Sönke; Reichstein, Markus
  • New Phytologist, Vol. 213, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1111/nph.14288

Land use change and nitrogen feedbacks constrain the trajectory of the land carbon sink
journal, October 2013

  • Gerber, Stefan; Hedin, Lars O.; Keel, Sonja G.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1002/grl.50957

Contributions of secondary forest and nitrogen dynamics to terrestrial carbon uptake
journal, January 2010


Increase in forest water-use efficiency as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations rise
journal, July 2013

  • Keenan, Trevor F.; Hollinger, David Y.; Bohrer, Gil
  • Nature, Vol. 499, Issue 7458
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature12291

The Globalization of Nitrogen Deposition: Consequences for Terrestrial Ecosystems
journal, March 2002

  • Matson, Pamela; Lohse, Kathleen A.; Hall, Sharon J.
  • AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, Vol. 31, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1579/0044-7447-31.2.113

13C discrimination during CO2 assimilation by the terrestrial biosphere
journal, January 1994


The North American Carbon Program Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 2: Environmental driver data
journal, January 2014

  • Wei, Y.; Liu, S.; Huntzinger, D. N.
  • Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 7, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmd-7-2875-2014

Stomatal conductance of forest species after long-term exposure to elevated CO2 concentration: a synthesis
journal, February 2001


Nitrogen attenuation of terrestrial carbon cycle response to global environmental factors: NITROGEN ATTENUATION OF CARBON CYCLE
journal, December 2009

  • Jain, Atul; Yang, Xiaojuan; Kheshgi, Haroon
  • Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 23, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1029/2009GB003519

Increased water-use efficiency does not lead to enhanced tree growth under xeric and mesic conditions
journal, March 2014

  • Lévesque, Mathieu; Siegwolf, Rolf; Saurer, Matthias
  • New Phytologist, Vol. 203, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1111/nph.12772

Estimates of the Regression Coefficient Based on Kendall's Tau
journal, December 1968


Isotopic Composition of Plant Carbon Correlates With Water-Use Efficiency of Wheat Genotypes
journal, January 1984

  • Farquhar, Gd; Richards, Ra
  • Functional Plant Biology, Vol. 11, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1071/PP9840539

Environmental controls over carbon dioxide and water vapor exchange of terrestrial vegetation
journal, December 2002


Century-Scale Responses of Ecosystem Carbon Storage and Flux to Multiple Environmental Changes in the Southern United States
journal, April 2012


Effects of foliar nitrogen concentration on photosynthesis and water use efficiency in Douglas-fir
journal, June 1993


The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human-induced global land-use change over the past 12,000 years: HYDE 3.1 Holocene land use
journal, September 2010


Daily underlying water use efficiency for AmeriFlux sites: DAILY UNDERLYING WUE
journal, May 2015

  • Zhou, Sha; Yu, Bofu; Huang, Yuefei
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 120, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1002/2015JG002947

Modelling Stomatal Responses to Environment in Macadamia integrifolia
journal, January 1991


Greening of the Earth and its drivers
journal, April 2016

  • Zhu, Zaichun; Piao, Shilong; Myneni, Ranga B.
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3004

Contrasting physiological and structural vegetation feedbacks in climate change simulations
journal, June 1997

  • Betts, Richard A.; Cox, Peter M.; Lee, Susan E.
  • Nature, Vol. 387, Issue 6635
  • DOI: 10.1038/42924

Exploiting synergies of global land cover products for carbon cycle modeling
journal, April 2006

  • Jung, Martin; Henkel, Kathrin; Herold, Martin
  • Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 101, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2006.01.020

Effect of nitrogen deposition on China's terrestrial carbon uptake in the context of multifactor environmental changes
journal, January 2012

  • Lu, Chaoqun; Tian, Hanqin; Liu, Mingliang
  • Ecological Applications, Vol. 22, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1890/10-1685.1

Updated high-resolution grids of monthly climatic observations - the CRU TS3.10 Dataset: UPDATED HIGH-RESOLUTION GRIDS OF MONTHLY CLIMATIC OBSERVATIONS
journal, May 2013

  • Harris, I.; Jones, P. D.; Osborn, T. J.
  • International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 34, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1002/joc.3711

Elevated CO 2 increases tree-level intrinsic water use efficiency: insights from carbon and oxygen isotope analyses in tree rings across three forest FACE sites
journal, December 2012

  • Battipaglia, Giovanna; Saurer, Matthias; Cherubini, Paolo
  • New Phytologist, Vol. 197, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1111/nph.12044

The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project
journal, March 1996


Partitioning evapotranspiration based on the concept of underlying water use efficiency: ET PARTITIONING
journal, February 2016

  • Zhou, Sha; Yu, Bofu; Zhang, Yao
  • Water Resources Research, Vol. 52, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1002/2015WR017766

CO 2 emissions from land-use change affected more by nitrogen cycle, than by the choice of land-cover data
journal, April 2013

  • Jain, Atul K.; Meiyappan, Prasanth; Song, Yang
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 19, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12207

Dominant role of plant physiology in trend and variability of gross primary productivity in North America
journal, February 2017

  • Zhou, Sha; Zhang, Yao; Ciais, Philippe
  • Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/srep41366

Global Consequences of Land Use
journal, July 2005


Optimal Capital Allocation Principles
journal, March 2011


Evapotranspiration and water use efficiency in relation to climate and canopy nitrogen in U.S. forests: ET AND WUE SCALED WITH CANOPY NITROGEN
journal, October 2016

  • Guerrieri, Rossella; Lepine, Lucie; Asbjornsen, Heidi
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 121, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1002/2016JG003415

Trends of nutrients and metals in precipitation in northern Germany: the role of emissions and meteorology
journal, May 2021


Spatial variability and temporal trends in water-use efficiency of European forests
text, January 2014

  • Woodley, Ewan J.; Sonninen, Eloni; Andreu-Hayles, Laia
  • Blackwell Science
  • DOI: 10.7892/boris.59394

The North American Carbon Program Multi-scale synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 1: Overview and experimental design
journal, January 2013

  • Huntzinger, D. N.; Schwalm, C.; Michalak, A. M.
  • Geoscientific Model Development Discussions, Vol. 6, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmdd-6-3977-2013

Greening of the Earth and its drivers
text, January 2016

  • Koven, Charles; Xiao, Zhiqiang; Zhu, Zaichun
  • Nature Publishing Group
  • DOI: 10.7892/boris.89569

The North American Carbon Program Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 2: Environmental driver data
journal, January 2013

  • Wei, Y.; Liu, S.; Huntzinger, D. N.
  • Geoscientific Model Development Discussions, Vol. 6, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmdd-6-5375-2013

Works referencing / citing this record:

Forest‐Type‐Dependent Water Use Efficiency Trends Across the Northern Hemisphere
journal, August 2018

  • Wang, Mengjie; Chen, Yunhao; Wu, Xiuchen
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 16
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018gl079093

Assessing the Impacts of Urbanization on Albedo in Jing-Jin-Ji Region of China
journal, July 2018

  • Tang, Rongyun; Zhao, Xiang; Zhou, Tao
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 10, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs10071096

Gas exchange and water‐use efficiency in plant canopies
journal, December 2018


The effect of Indian summer monsoon on the seasonal variation of carbon sequestration by a forest ecosystem over North-East India
journal, January 2020

  • Deb Burman, Pramit Kumar; Sarma, Dipankar; Chakraborty, Supriyo
  • SN Applied Sciences, Vol. 2, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1007/s42452-019-1934-x