Fig. 2: Response functions of global LAI sensitivity to soil moisture.

a Response functions of LAI sensitivity (\(\frac{\partial {LAI}}{\partial {SMnear}}\)) to growing-season mean near-surface soil moisture (growing-season mean SMnear) from observations (Obs) and land surface models (Model). b Similar to a but for LAI sensitivity to sub-surface soil moisture (\(\frac{\partial {LAI}}{\partial {SMsub}}\)). In a, b, global grid cells with significant LAI sensitivities to soil moisture are included. Two-sided significance tests are done for each grid cell at the p < 0.01 level as assessed with Theil-sen regressions. The solid line and shaded areas show the median and interquartile ranges of LAI sensitivity. Probability distributions of near-surface soil moisture in observations and models are shown at the bottom of each plot. Results here are based on ensemble-product means, while results from individual products or models are presented in Supplementary Fig. 4.