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Jonas Ardö

Jonas Ardö

Professor

Jonas Ardö

Coupling of ecosystem-scale plant water storage and leaf phenology observed by satellite

Author

  • Feng Tian
  • Jean-pierre Wigneron
  • Philippe Ciais
  • Jérôme Chave
  • Jérôme Ogée
  • Josep Peñuelas
  • Anders Ræbild
  • Jean-christophe Domec
  • Xiaoye Tong
  • Martin Brandt
  • Arnaud Mialon
  • Nemesio Rodriguez-fernandez
  • Torbern Tagesson
  • Amen Al-yaari
  • Yann Kerr
  • Chi Chen
  • Ranga B. Myneni
  • Wenmin Zhang
  • Jonas Ardö
  • Rasmus Fensholt
Show all

Summary, in English

Plant water storage is fundamental to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems by participating in plant metabolism, nutrient and sugar transport, and maintenance of the integrity of the hydraulic system of the plant. However, a global view of the size and dynamics of the water pools stored in plant tissues is still lacking. Here, we report global patterns of seasonal variations in ecosystem-scale plant water storage and their relationship with leaf phenology, based on space-borne measurements of L-band vegetation optical depth. We find that seasonal variations in plant water storage are highly synchronous with leaf phenology for the boreal and temperate forests, but asynchronous for the tropical woodlands, where the seasonal development of plant water storage lags behind leaf area by up to 180 days. Contrasting patterns of the time lag between plant water storage and terrestrial groundwater storage are also evident in these ecosystems. A comparison of the water cycle components in seasonally dry tropical woodlands highlights the buffering effect of plant water storage on the seasonal dynamics of water supply and demand. Our results offer insights into ecosystem-scale plant water relations globally and provide a basis for an improved parameterization of eco-hydrological and Earth system models.

Department/s

  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2018-08-13

Language

English

Pages

1428-1435

Publication/Series

Nature Ecology and Evolution

Volume

2

Issue

9

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2397-334X