Water cycle dynamic increases resilience of vegetation under higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration

Abstract:

Plant stomata couple the energy, water and carbon cycles. Photosynthesis requires stomata to open to take up carbon dioxide. In the process water vapor is released as transpiration. As atmospheric CO2 concentration rises, for the same amount of CO2 uptake, less water vapor is transpired, translating into higher water use efficiency. Reduced water vapor losses will increase soil water storage if the leaf area coverage remains similar. This will in turn alter the surface energy partitioning: more heat will be dissipated as sensible heat flux, resulting in possibly higher surface temperatures. In contrast with this common hypothesis, our study shows that the water saved during the growing season by increased WUE can be mobilized by the vegetation and help reduce the maximum temperature of mid-latitude heat waves.

The large scale meteorological conditions of 2003 are the basis of four regional model simulations coupling an atmospheric model to a surface model. We performed two simulations with respectively 2003 (CTL) and 2100 (FUT) atmospheric CO2 applied to both the atmospheric and surface models. A third (RAD) and a fourth (FER) simulations are run with 2100 CO2 concentration applied to respectively the atmospheric model only and the surface model only. RAD investigates the impact of the radiative forcing, and FER the response to vegetation CO2 fertilization.

Our results show that the water saved through higher water use efficiency during the growing season enabled by higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations helps the vegetation to cope during severe heat and dryness conditions in the summer of mid-latitude climate. These results demonstrate that consideration of the vegetation carbon cycle is essential to model the seasonal water cycle dynamic and land-atmosphere interactions, and enhance the accuracy of the model outputs especially for extreme events. They also have important implications for the future of agriculture, water resources management, ecosystems health and the evolution of carbon pools.