Long-term trend and interannual variability of precipitation-use efficiency in Eurasian grasslands

Abstract

Precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) is an important ecosystem indicator of the efficiency of carbon–water conversion. The trend and interannual variation of precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) response to climatic factors provide a theoretical foundation for understanding how Eurasian grasslands adapt to climate change. However, the long-term trends and regulating factors of PUE in Eurasian grasslands at the continental scale are still unclear. Here, we integrated long-term Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling System (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), field surveys of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and meteorological datasets during 1982–2015 to reveal the temporal variations and controls of PUE in Eurasian grasslands. We found that there was an overall uptrend of PUE (3 × 10−3 g C m−2 mm−1/10 yr) in Eurasian grasslands. The greatest increasing trends of PUE was found in forest steppe at the rate of 13 × 10−3 g C m−2 mm−1/10 yr, while greatest decreasing trend presented in alpine steppe at the rate of −2.6 × 10−3 g C m−2 mm−1/10 yr. The PUE showed linearly decreasing patterns with precipitation at the biome and continental scales, while it was uncorrelated with temperature at the continental scale and showed diverse patterns of linear increase, concave-down and no correlation with temperature for different biomes. The temporal variation of PUE was mainly controlled by precipitation in Eurasian grasslands. This result further revealed that climatic factors shaped the temporal pattern of PUE by the cascading effects networks of climatic factors (precipitation and temperature) − vapor pressure deficit (VPD) – leaf area index (LAI) – ANPP – PUE (CVLP-CENet). This study identified the long-term trends, interannual variations and controls of PUE in Eurasian grasslands over the past three decades, and provided crucial insights into understanding grassland ecosystems dynamics and response to climate change.