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

Title: Quantitative assessments of water-use efficiency in Temperate Eurasian Steppe along an aridity gradient

Abstract

Water-use efficiency (WUE), defined as the ratio of net primary productivity (NPP) to evapotranspiration (ET), is an important indicator to represent the trade-off pattern between vegetation productivity and water consumption. Its dynamics under climate change are important to ecohydrology and ecosystem management, especially in the drylands. In this study, we modified and used a late version of Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator (BEPS), to quantify the WUE in the typical dryland ecosystems, Temperate Eurasian Steppe (TES). The Aridity Index (AI) was used to specify the terrestrial water availability condition. The regional results showed that during the period of 1999–2008, the WUE has a clear decreasing trend in the spatial distribution from arid to humid areas. The highest annual average WUE was in dry and semi-humid sub-region (DSH) with 0.88 gC mm-1 and the lowest was in arid sub-region (AR) with 0.22 gC mm-1. A two-stage pattern of WUE was found in TES. That is, WUE would enhance with lower aridity stress, but decline under the humid environment. Over 65% of the region exhibited increasing WUE. This enhancement, however, could not indicate that the grasslands were getting better because the NPP even slightly decreased. It was mainly attributed to the reduction ofmore » ET over 70% of the region, which is closely related to the rainfall decrease. The results also suggested a similar negative spatial correlation between the WUE and the mean annual precipitation (MAP) at the driest and the most humid ends. This regional pattern reflected the different roles of water in regulating the terrestrial ecosystems under different aridity levels. This study could facilitate the understanding of the interactions between terrestrial carbon and water cycles, and thus contribute to a sustainable management of nature resources in the dryland ecosystems.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9]
  1. Nanjing Univ. (China). College of Biology and Environment. Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies; Nanjing Univ. (China). School of Life Science
  2. Nanjing Univ. (China). School of Life Science
  3. Nanjing Univ. (China). International Inst. for Earth Systems Sciences
  4. Nanjing Univ. (China). College of Biology and Environment. Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies
  5. Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing (China). Inst. of Agro-Resources and Regional Planning
  6. Nanjing Univ. (China).Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences
  7. Nanjing Univ. (China).Dept. of Ecology
  8. Univ. of Sydney, NSW (Australia). Faculty of Agriculture and Environment
  9. Georg-August Univ. Gottingen (Germany). Inst. of Geography; Georg-August Univ. Gottingen (Germany). Busgen-Inst. Dept. of Bioclimatology
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division
OSTI Identifier:
1627830
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
PLoS ONE
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of Science
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Science & Technology - Other Topics

Citation Formats

Chen, Yizhao, Li, Jianlong, Ju, Weimin, Ruan, Honghua, Qin, Zhihao, Huang, Yiye, Jeelani, Nasreen, Padarian, José, and Propastin, Pavel. Quantitative assessments of water-use efficiency in Temperate Eurasian Steppe along an aridity gradient. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179875.
Chen, Yizhao, Li, Jianlong, Ju, Weimin, Ruan, Honghua, Qin, Zhihao, Huang, Yiye, Jeelani, Nasreen, Padarian, José, & Propastin, Pavel. Quantitative assessments of water-use efficiency in Temperate Eurasian Steppe along an aridity gradient. United States. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179875
Chen, Yizhao, Li, Jianlong, Ju, Weimin, Ruan, Honghua, Qin, Zhihao, Huang, Yiye, Jeelani, Nasreen, Padarian, José, and Propastin, Pavel. Fri . "Quantitative assessments of water-use efficiency in Temperate Eurasian Steppe along an aridity gradient". United States. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179875. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1627830.
@article{osti_1627830,
title = {Quantitative assessments of water-use efficiency in Temperate Eurasian Steppe along an aridity gradient},
author = {Chen, Yizhao and Li, Jianlong and Ju, Weimin and Ruan, Honghua and Qin, Zhihao and Huang, Yiye and Jeelani, Nasreen and Padarian, José and Propastin, Pavel},
abstractNote = {Water-use efficiency (WUE), defined as the ratio of net primary productivity (NPP) to evapotranspiration (ET), is an important indicator to represent the trade-off pattern between vegetation productivity and water consumption. Its dynamics under climate change are important to ecohydrology and ecosystem management, especially in the drylands. In this study, we modified and used a late version of Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator (BEPS), to quantify the WUE in the typical dryland ecosystems, Temperate Eurasian Steppe (TES). The Aridity Index (AI) was used to specify the terrestrial water availability condition. The regional results showed that during the period of 1999–2008, the WUE has a clear decreasing trend in the spatial distribution from arid to humid areas. The highest annual average WUE was in dry and semi-humid sub-region (DSH) with 0.88 gC mm-1 and the lowest was in arid sub-region (AR) with 0.22 gC mm-1. A two-stage pattern of WUE was found in TES. That is, WUE would enhance with lower aridity stress, but decline under the humid environment. Over 65% of the region exhibited increasing WUE. This enhancement, however, could not indicate that the grasslands were getting better because the NPP even slightly decreased. It was mainly attributed to the reduction of ET over 70% of the region, which is closely related to the rainfall decrease. The results also suggested a similar negative spatial correlation between the WUE and the mean annual precipitation (MAP) at the driest and the most humid ends. This regional pattern reflected the different roles of water in regulating the terrestrial ecosystems under different aridity levels. This study could facilitate the understanding of the interactions between terrestrial carbon and water cycles, and thus contribute to a sustainable management of nature resources in the dryland ecosystems.},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0179875},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
number = 7,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri Jul 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Works referenced in this record:

Sensitivity of carbon budget to historical climate variability and atmospheric CO2 concentration in temperate grassland ecosystems in China
journal, July 2012


Plant Species Richness and Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands
journal, January 2012


Simulating net primary production of grasslands in northeastern Asia using MODIS data from 2000 to 2005
journal, February 2010

  • Xing, Xiaoxu; Xu, Xingliang; Zhang, Xianzhou
  • Journal of Geographical Sciences, Vol. 20, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1007/s11442-010-0193-y

Simulating energy and carbon fluxes over winter wheat using coupled land surface and terrestrial ecosystem models
journal, August 2003


An analytical model for relating global terrestrial carbon assimilation with climate and surface conditions using a rate limitation framework: ANALYTICAL GPP MODEL
journal, November 2015

  • Yang, Yuting; Donohue, Randall J.; McVicar, Tim R.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 42, Issue 22
  • DOI: 10.1002/2015GL066835

Keeping a positive carbon balance under adverse conditions: responses of photosynthesis and respiration to water stress
journal, February 2006


It is getting hotter in here: determining and projecting the impacts of global environmental change on drylands
journal, November 2012

  • Maestre, Fernando T.; Salguero-Gómez, Roberto; Quero, José L.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 367, Issue 1606
  • DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0323

Effects of vegetation control on ecosystem water use efficiency within and among four grassland ecosystems in China
journal, July 2008


Simulation study of China’s net primary production
journal, February 2008


The interdependence of mechanisms underlying climate-driven vegetation mortality
journal, October 2011

  • McDowell, Nate G.; Beerling, David J.; Breshears, David D.
  • Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Vol. 26, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.06.003

Plant functional traits and soil carbon sequestration in contrasting biomes
journal, May 2008


Biogeography of the arid steppeland north of the Sahara
journal, June 2001


Observation and simulation of net primary productivity in Qilian Mountain, western China
journal, November 2007


Net primary productivity of China's terrestrial ecosystems from a process model driven by remote sensing
journal, November 2007


Understanding the coupled natural and human systems in Dryland East Asia
journal, January 2012


Ecosystem resilience despite large-scale altered hydroclimatic conditions
journal, January 2013

  • Ponce-Campos, Guillermo E.; Moran, M. Susan; Huete, Alfredo
  • Nature, Vol. 494, Issue 7437
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature11836

Impacts of climate and land-cover changes in arid lands of Central Asia
journal, July 2005


Evaporation and surface temperature
journal, January 1981

  • Monteith, J. L.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 107, Issue 451
  • DOI: 10.1002/qj.49710745102

Rangeland Production and Annual Rainfall Relations in the Mediterranean Basin and in the African Sahelo-Sudanian Zone
journal, May 1977

  • Houerou, H. N. Le; Hoste, C. H.
  • Journal of Range Management, Vol. 30, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.2307/3897463

Improving agricultural water use efficiency in arid and semiarid areas of China
journal, February 2006


Future carbon balance of China's forests under climate change and increasing CO2
journal, November 2007


Global diversity of drought tolerance and grassland climate-change resilience
journal, August 2012

  • Craine, Joseph M.; Ocheltree, Troy W.; Nippert, Jesse B.
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1634

Global aridification in the second half of the 20th century and its relationship to large-scale climate background
journal, May 2007


Changes of net primary productivity in China during recent 11 years detected using an ecological model driven by MODIS data
journal, December 2012


Rapid warming in mid-latitude central Asia for the past 100 years
journal, January 2009


Rain use efficiency: a unifying concept in arid-land ecology
journal, September 1984


Inhibition of photosynthetic reactions under water stress: interaction with light level
journal, January 1984


Potential evapotranspiration and the likelihood of future drought
journal, June 1990

  • Rind, D.; Goldberg, R.; Hansen, J.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 95, Issue D7
  • DOI: 10.1029/JD095iD07p09983

Rangeland Production and Annual Rainfall Relations in the Mediterranean Basin and in the African Sahelo-Sudanian Zone
journal, May 1977

  • Houerou, H. N. Le; Hoste, C. H.
  • Journal of Range Management, Vol. 30, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.2307/3897463

Integrating remotely sensed data with an ecosystem model to estimate net primary productivity in East Asia
journal, July 2002


Recent Climatic Change in the World's Drylands
journal, January 1996


Modified light use efficiency model for assessment of carbon sequestration in grasslands of Kazakhstan: combining ground biomass data and remote-sensing
journal, September 2011

  • Propastin, Pavel A.; Kappas, Martin W.; Herrmann, Stefanie M.
  • International Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 33, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2011.577105

Carbon balance assessment of a natural steppe of southern Siberia by multiple constraint approach
journal, January 2007

  • Belelli Marchesini, L.; Papale, D.; Reichstein, M.
  • Biogeosciences Discussions, Vol. 4, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.5194/bgd-4-165-2007

Spatial analysis of the driving factors of grassland degradation under conditions of climate change and intensive use in Inner Mongolia, China
journal, November 2011


Grassland diversity related to the Late Iron Age human population density
journal, May 2007


Nutrient dynamics on a precipitation gradient in Hawai'i
journal, February 1998


Effect of climate and CO 2 changes on the greening of the Northern Hemisphere over the past two decades
journal, January 2006

  • Piao, Shilong; Friedlingstein, Pierre; Ciais, Philippe
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 23
  • DOI: 10.1029/2006GL028205

Biomass dynamics and water use efficiencies of five plant communities in the shortgrass steppe
journal, August 1989

  • Liang, Y. M.; Hazlett, D. L.; Lauenroth, W. K.
  • Oecologia, Vol. 80, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1007/bf00380143

Primary simulation on the response of leaf maximum carboxylation rate to multiple environmental factors
journal, May 2012

  • Zhang, YanMin; Zhou, GuangSheng
  • Chinese Science Bulletin, Vol. 57, Issue 13
  • DOI: 10.1360/972011-2449

Carbon stock and its responses to climate change in C entral A sia
journal, January 2015

  • Li, Chaofan; Zhang, Chi; Luo, Geping
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 21, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12846

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

Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in different ecosystems in China
journal, May 2009


Plant Species Richness and Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands
journal, January 2012


Trends and drivers of regional sources and sinks of carbon dioxide over the past two decades
journal, January 2013


Assessing the stability and uncertainty of predicted vegetation growth under climatic variability: northern mixed grass prairie
journal, April 2001


Climate and environmental change in arid Central Asia: Impacts, vulnerability, and adaptations
journal, November 2009


Relationships between precipitation and surface temperature: PRECIPITATION AND TEMPERATURE RELATIONS
journal, July 2005

  • Trenberth, Kevin E.; Shea, Dennis J.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 32, Issue 14
  • DOI: 10.1029/2005GL022760

Multiscale analysis and validation of the MODIS LAI productI. Uncertainty assessment
journal, December 2002


Carbon stock and its responses to climate change in C entral A sia
journal, January 2015

  • Li, Chaofan; Zhang, Chi; Luo, Geping
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 21, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12846

Carbon balance assessment of a natural steppe of southern Siberia by multiple constraint approach
journal, January 2007

  • Belelli Marchesini, L.; Papale, D.; Reichstein, M.
  • Biogeosciences Discussions, Vol. 4, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.5194/bgd-4-165-2007

Assessing Satellite-Observed Nighttime Lights for Monitoring Socioeconomic Parameters in the Republic of Kazakhstan
journal, July 2012


Modelling multi-year coupled carbon and water fluxes in a boreal aspen forest
journal, November 2006


Ecosystem resilience despite large-scale altered hydroclimatic conditions
journal, January 2013

  • Ponce-Campos, Guillermo E.; Moran, M. Susan; Huete, Alfredo
  • Nature, Vol. 494, Issue 7437
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature11836

The return of the steppe large-scale restoration of degraded land in southern Russia during the post-Soviet era
journal, January 2002

  • Hölzel, Norbert; Haub, Carsten; Ingelfinger, Markus P.
  • Journal for Nature Conservation, Vol. 10, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1078/1617-1381-00009

Plant functional traits and soil carbon sequestration in contrasting biomes
journal, May 2008


Biogeography of the arid steppeland north of the Sahara
journal, June 2001


Water‐mediated responses of ecosystem carbon fluxes to climatic change in a temperate steppe
journal, October 2007


Impact of CO 2 fertilization on maximum foliage cover across the globe's warm, arid environments : CO
journal, June 2013

  • Donohue, Randall J.; Roderick, Michael L.; McVicar, Tim R.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1002/grl.50563

Advances in leaf maximum carboxylation rate and its response to environmental factors [植物叶片最大羧化速率及其对环境因子响应的研究进展]
journal, January 2012

  • ZHANG Yanmin, 张彦敏; ZHOU Guangsheng, 周广胜
  • Acta Ecologica Sinica, Vol. 32, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.5846/stxb201108091168

Spatial precipitation and evapotranspiration in the typical steppe of Inner Mongolia, China – A model based approach using MODIS data
journal, January 2013


Changes in Plant Functional Groups, Litter Quality, and Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Mineralization With Sheep Grazing in an Inner Mongolian Grassland
journal, November 2004


A process-based boreal ecosystem productivity simulator using remote sensing inputs
journal, November 1997


Spatiotemporal precipitation variations in the arid Central Asia in the context of global warming
journal, December 2011


Drought and spring cooling induced recent decrease in vegetation growth in Inner Asia
journal, September 2013


Evaporation and surface temperature
journal, January 1981

  • Monteith, J. L.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 107, Issue 451
  • DOI: 10.1002/qj.49710745102

Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources
journal, August 2006


Water-use efficiency of forest ecosystems in eastern China and its relations to climatic variables
journal, March 2008


Nutrient dynamics on a precipitation gradient in Hawai'i
journal, February 1998


Spatial precipitation and evapotranspiration in the typical steppe of Inner Mongolia, China – A model based approach using MODIS data
journal, January 2013


Grassland Carbon Sequestration Ability in China: A New Perspective from Terrestrial Aridity Zones
journal, January 2016


Land-atmosphere CO 2 exchange simulated by a land surface process model coupled to an atmospheric general circulation model
journal, January 1995

  • Bonan, Gordon B.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 100, Issue D2
  • DOI: 10.1029/94jd02961

Net primary productivity of China's terrestrial ecosystems from a process model driven by remote sensing
journal, November 2007


Daily canopy photosynthesis model through temporal and spatial scaling for remote sensing applications
journal, December 1999


The interdependence of mechanisms underlying climate-driven vegetation mortality
journal, October 2011

  • McDowell, Nate G.; Beerling, David J.; Breshears, David D.
  • Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Vol. 26, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.06.003

Future carbon balance of China's forests under climate change and increasing CO2
journal, November 2007


An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids
journal, January 2005

  • Mitchell, Timothy D.; Jones, Philip D.
  • International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 25, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/joc.1181

A biochemical model of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation in leaves of C3 species
journal, June 1980

  • Farquhar, G. D.; von Caemmerer, S.; Berry, J. A.
  • Planta, Vol. 149, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF00386231

Evapotranspiration and water use efficiency in different-aged Pacific Northwest Douglas-fir stands
journal, June 2009

  • Jassal, Rachhpal S.; Black, T. Andrew; Spittlehouse, David L.
  • Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 149, Issue 6-7
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2009.02.004

Modeling and Scaling Coupled Energy, Water, and Carbon Fluxes Based on Remote Sensing: An Application to Canada’s Landmass
journal, April 2007

  • Chen, Baozhang; Chen, Jing M.; Mo, Gang
  • Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 8, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1175/JHM566.1

It is getting hotter in here: determining and projecting the impacts of global environmental change on drylands
journal, November 2012

  • Maestre, Fernando T.; Salguero-Gómez, Roberto; Quero, José L.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 367, Issue 1606
  • DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0323

Water‐mediated responses of ecosystem carbon fluxes to climatic change in a temperate steppe
journal, October 2007


Long-term CO 2 fertilization increases vegetation productivity and has little effect on hydrological partitioning in tropical rainforests : CO
journal, August 2016

  • Yang, Yuting; Donohue, Randall J.; McVicar, Tim R.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 121, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1002/2016JG003475

Works referencing / citing this record:

Explicit Representation of Grazing Activity in a Diagnostic Terrestrial Model: A Data‐Process Combined Scheme
journal, April 2019

  • Chen, Yizhao; Ju, Weimin; Mu, Shaojie
  • Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 11, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018ms001352

Changes of Grassland Rain Use Efficiency and NDVI in Northwestern China from 1982 to 2013 and Its Response to Climate Change
journal, November 2018

  • Chang, Juan; Tian, Jiaxi; Zhang, Zengxin
  • Water, Vol. 10, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.3390/w10111689

On the use of alternative water use efficiency parameters in dryland ecosystems: a review
journal, June 2019