Articles | Volume 21, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1533-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1533-2024
Research article
 | 
22 Mar 2024
Research article |  | 22 Mar 2024

Relevance of near-surface soil moisture vs. terrestrial water storage for global vegetation functioning

Prajwal Khanal, Anne J. Hoek Van Dijke, Timo Schaffhauser, Wantong Li, Sinikka J. Paulus, Chunhui Zhan, and René Orth

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Cited articles

Amatulli, G., Domisch, S., Tuanmu, M.-N., Parmentier, B., Ranipeta, A., Malczyk, J., and Jetz, W.: A suite of global, cross-scale topographic variables for environmental and biodiversity modeling, Sci. Data, 5, 180040, https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.40, 2018 (data available at: https://www.earthenv.org/topography, last access: 18 March 2024). 
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Brinkmann, N., Eugster, W., Buchmann, N., and Kahmen, A.: Species-specific differences in water uptake depth of mature temperate trees vary with water availability in the soil, Plant Biol. J., 21, 71–81, https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12907, 2019. 
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Water availability is essential for vegetation functioning, but the depth of vegetation water uptake is largely unknown due to sparse ground measurements. This study correlates vegetation growth with soil moisture availability globally to infer vegetation water uptake depth using only satellite-based data. We find that the vegetation water uptake depth varies across climate regimes and vegetation types and also changes during dry months at a global scale.
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