Response of vegetation ecosystems to flash drought with solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence over the Hai River Basin, China during 2001-2019

Tingting Yao; Suxia Liu; Shi Hu; Xingguo Mo

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114947

Response of vegetation ecosystems to flash drought with solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence over the Hai River Basin, China during 2001-2019

J Environ Manage. 2022 Jul 1:313:114947. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114947. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Authors

Tingting Yao¹, Suxia Liu², Shi Hu³, Xingguo Mo⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
² Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China; Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. Electronic address: liusx@igsnrr.ac.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100101, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China; Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.

PMID: 35421694
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114947

Abstract

With global climate change, frequent flash droughts have critically impacted vegetation productivity. Based on the new definition on flash drought onset and duration, the temporal and spatial evolution patterns of the flash drought over the Hai River Basin (HRB) was analysed. Among the events, the flash drought in 2019 lasted for 40 days, from the day of the year (DOY) 120 to DOY160, which was the strongest and mainly concentrated in the south-eastern part of the basin. Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) and vegetation indices were used to explore the responses of different vegetation types to this flash drought. Compared to forest and grassland, the SIF and SIFyield (SIF normalized by the absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR)) values of cropland were more sensitive to water losses and replenishment. By analysing different radiation conditions which would affect SIF and photosynthesis, low radiation was found altering the linear relationship between fluorescence and photosynthesis. The flash drought event caused gross primary productivity (GPP) losses in 40% of the basin and the maximum loss reached 0.16 kg C m^-2, indicating that the impact of this flash drought on vegetation productivity was quite serious. The results obtained in this work can be used to understand the mechanisms with which the vegetation photosynthetic capacity responds to flash droughts and to evaluate the impact of flash droughts on terrestrial ecosystems.

Keywords: Flash drought duration; Flash drought onset; Gross primary productivity; Soil moisture; Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence; Vegetation index.

MeSH terms

China
Chlorophyll
Droughts*
Ecosystem*
Fluorescence
Photosynthesis
Rivers
Seasons

Substances

Chlorophyll