Co-regulation of water and energy in the spatial heterogeneity of drought resistance and resilience

Abstract

Vegetation resistance and resilience to drought are linked to the stability of terrestrial ecosystems under climate change. However, the factors driving the spatial heterogeneity in drought resistance and resilience remain poorly understood. In the study, we utilized multiple satellite-derived vegetation indices to calculate and analyze changes in drought resistance and resilience across various ecoregions worldwide. Results indicated that drought resistance showed a significant increase with the increase in water availability, but no significant relationship was observed between drought resistance and energy. In contrast, drought resilience exhibited a significant increase with an increase in energy rather than in water. Furthermore, a negative correlation was observed between drought resistance and resilience across different ecoregions worldwide, indicating a trade-off between resistance and resilience. However, the strength of the negative correlation varied based on water and energy conditions. These findings provide compelling evidence that water and energy co-regulated the spatial heterogeneity in drought resistance and resilience across the globe. The robust linear relationship between drought resistance and resilience and available water and energy demonstrated in our study is critical to accurately predicting and assessing the impact of climate change on vegetation growth and terrestrial carbon cycling in the future.

Declining Tradeoff Between Resistance and Resilience of Ecosystems to Drought

“…This study assessed the drought resistance and resilience using remotely sensed vegetation data sets, clarified that the tradeoff between resistance and resilience existed globally and found a temporal decline in the tradeoff. The tradeoff between Earth's Future 10.1029/2024EF004665 resistance and resilience is the result of long-term selection of vegetation by droughts (Chen et al, 2023;Miller & Chesson, 2009), ensuring that ecosystems are not in a vulnerable pattern of low resistance-high resistance when exposed to droughts. Being high resistance and resilience at the same time minimizes the damage caused by drought, but each of them consumes resource costs (Chen et al, 2023).…”

“…The tradeoff between Earth's Future 10.1029/2024EF004665 resistance and resilience is the result of long-term selection of vegetation by droughts (Chen et al, 2023;Miller & Chesson, 2009), ensuring that ecosystems are not in a vulnerable pattern of low resistance-high resistance when exposed to droughts. Being high resistance and resilience at the same time minimizes the damage caused by drought, but each of them consumes resource costs (Chen et al, 2023). As a result, the development of one often comes at the expense of the other (Russo et al, 2020), thus evolving into tradeoff.…”

“…In European ecosystems, Ivits et al (2016) demonstrated that Mediterranean ecosystems showed the least drought resistance but were resilient based on the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) developed using products from GIMMS and Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). At the global scale, Chen et al (2023) found that resistance was negatively correlated with resilience in different biomes around the world, indicating that there was a tradeoff between resistance and resilience.…”