Inter- and intra-annual variability and climatic responses of ecosystem water use efficiency in a cool-temperate freshwater wetland

Abstract

Wetland ecosystems play a pivotal role in terrestrial carbon and water cycles, thereby possessing great potential to regulate terrestrial water use efficiency (WUE), which is calculated as the ratio of gross primary productivity (GPP) to evapotranspiration (ET). However, it remains unclear the possible changes in wetland WUE under present and future climate conditions. In this research, WUE variations in a Phragmites australis-dominated freshwater wetland were determined by the eddy covariance method during 2020–2023. Further, we projected future GPP, ET, and WUE under four Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios based on five Earth System Models. The 3-year average field observation suggested that the P. australis marsh exhibited high GPP (1149 g C m−2), but consumed large amounts of water through ET (611 mm H2O), resulting in relatively low WUE (1.89 g C mm−1 H2O). During wet years, the studied marsh consumed much more water through evaporation than through transpiration, thus exhibiting lower WUE. Contrarily, large amounts of water were utilized to maintain high primary productivity through transpiration in 2021–2022 dry year, leading to higher WUE. In future scenarios, GPP in the P. australis marsh shows consistently faster uptrends compared to ET from 2020 to 2100, consequently yielding persistent growths of WUE. Future growths of WUE indicate that P. australis marsh tends consume more water for maintaining productivity levels rather than loss via evaporation under future climate conditions, thereby intensifying the carbon–water interaction. Driven by the most rapid growth of environmental drivers, the RCP8.5 scenario shows the fastest increasing trends in GPP, ET, and WUE among four RCP scenarios, whereas the reverse ocurres under RCP2.6 scenario. Overall, our study advocates for more comprehensive research encompassing field observation and model simulation to address the current knowledge gap regarding the response of wetland WUE to contemporary and future climate change.