Rapid increases in shrubland and forest intrinsic water-use efficiency during an ongoing megadrought.

ABSTRACT: Globally, intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) has risen dramatically over the past century in concert with increases in atmospheric CO₂ concentration. This increase could be further accelerated by long-term drought events, such as the ongoing multidecadal "megadrought" in the American Southwest. However, direct measurements of iWUE in this region are rare and largely constrained to trees, which may bias estimates of iWUE trends toward more mesic, high elevation areas and neglect the responses of other key plant functional types such as shrubs that are dominant across much of the region. Here, we found evidence that iWUE is increasing in the Southwest at one of the fastest rates documented due to the recent drying trend. These increases were particularly large across three comm

SUBMITTER: Kannenberg SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8719875 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature