Declining Sensitivity and Increasing Resistance Time of Ecosystem Water Use Efficiency  to Meteorological Drought

Wang, Zijun; Wu, Rong; Liu, Yangyang; Zhang, Zhaoying; Wen, Zhongming; Wang, Zhenqian; Sitch, Stephen; Yuan, Wenping

doi:10.5194/hess-30-4985-2026

Articles | Volume 30, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4985-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4985-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 30, issue 15

Research article

|

10 Aug 2026

Research article |

| 10 Aug 2026

Declining Sensitivity and Increasing Resistance Time of Ecosystem Water Use Efficiency to Meteorological Drought

Zijun Wang, Rong Wu, Yangyang Liu, Zhaoying Zhang, Zhongming Wen, Zhenqian Wang, Stephen Sitch, and Wenping Yuan

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4985-2026-supplement

Data sets

HILDA+ Global Land Use Change between 1960 and 2019 Karina Winkler et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.921846

Short summary

The coupling between water use efficiency (WUE) and drought remains unclear. This study first incorporates the optimal drought timescale at which WUE responds to drought. The results show that optimal drought timescale has gradually lengthened, indicating a weakening WUE-drought coupling, mainly driven by CO₂ fertilization, with surface soil moisture as the most important hydrothermal factor. This study provides new insights into assessing WUE responses to drought.