Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40709498›Full record

ArticleGlobal change biology2025

The Response and Recovery of Carbon and Water Fluxes in Australian Ecosystems Exposed to Severe Drought.

C Stephens, B Medlyn, L Williams, J Knauer, A Inbar, E Pendall, S K Arndt, J Beringer, C M Ewenz, N Hinko-Najera and 8 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Global change biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

18 authors.

C StephensHawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-7387-0563
B MedlynHawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5728-9827
L WilliamsHawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.
J KnauerHawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4947-7067
A InbarHawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5861-963X
E PendallHawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-1651-8969
S K ArndtSchool of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
J BeringerSchool of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
C M EwenzTERN Ecosystem Processes Central Node, Airborne Research Australia, Parafield, South Australia, Australia.
N Hinko-NajeraSchool of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
L B HutleyFaculty of Science and Technology, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northwest Territories, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5533-9886
P IsaacOzFlux Central Node, TERN-OzFlux, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
M LiddellCentre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, USA.
W MeyerSchool of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
C E MooreSchool of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-0993-4419
J Cranko PageClimate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
R SilbersteinSchool of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
W WoodgateSchool of the Environment, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Western Australia, Australia.

Funding

Australian Research Council FL190100003National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, Australian Government CE170100023
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Climate change-driven increases in drought risk pose a critical threat to global carbon and water cycles. However, ecosystem-scale responses remain poorly quantified, particularly for severe, multiyear drought events. We addressed this gap by examining ecosystem-scale carbon and water flux sensitivity to the extreme 2018-19 drought in Australia using data from 14 eddy covariance flux sites. The ecosystems span grasslands and semi-arid woodlands to tropical and temperate forests. The driest sites (classed as "grass" and "very dry") experienced drastic productivity impacts, with a 65% decrease in Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) over 2 years relative to the pre-drought average. However, fluxes in "dry," "seasonally wet" and "wet" ecosystems showed remarkable resistance, with no overall change in GPP. All sites recovered rapidly; carbon fluxes in the first post-drought year matched (and generally exceeded) those of a climatically similar pre-drought year. Drought responses were strongly mediated by ecosystem-specific strategies. The driest ecosystems showed direct coupling of productivity to water availability, while intermediate ecosystems (dry and seasonally wet) leveraged stored soil water to maintain evapotranspiration and productivity under drought. At these sites, water was conserved over wet periods (evapotranspiration < demand, despite sufficient rainfall) and consumed over dry periods (evapotranspiration > rainfall). This mechanism mitigating periodic water stress under high rainfall variability likely contributed to the notable drought resistance of the dry and seasonally wet sites. The monthly water deficit index (MWDI) emerged as a robust predictor of productivity across space, highlighting that short-term water availability deficits strongly influence overall ecosystem composition. Analysis of drought response mechanisms suggested rapid leaf loss under water stress, particularly at the driest sites. Our findings underscore the importance of accounting for sub-surface water storage and diverse drought response strategies in vegetation models. We provide critical benchmarks for improving parameterization of plant-water relations, aiding efforts to inform climate-robust management strategies.

Indexed as

CarbonCarbon CycleClimate ChangeDroughtsEcosystemWaterWater CycleAustraliaCarbonWatercarbon fluxesdroughtecosystemseddy covarianceevapotranspirationresilienceresistance

Identifiers

PMID40709498
PMCPMC12291013

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.