Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

Plant responses to water stress revealed from soil moisture dynamics

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 9, pages 1765–1766 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Vegetation responses to water limitation are difficult to predict owing to large variation across space and time. Our global analysis of soil moisture dynamics reveals that plant water-use strategies vary systematically by ecosystem type in response to recent ecological and climatic conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Soil moisture drydown events contain signatures of plant water use.

References

  1. Kannenberg, S. A. et al. Opportunities, challenges and pitfalls in characterizing plant water-use strategies. Funct. Ecol. 36, 24–37 (2022). This review summarizes various ‘plant water-use strategy’ frameworks.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Trugman, A. T., Medvigy, D., Mankin, J. S. & Anderegg, W. R. L. Soil moisture stress as a major driver of carbon cycle uncertainty. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 6495–6503 (2018). This study finds that soil moisture limitation is a key driver of uncertainty in model simulations of the carbon cycle.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Dorigo, W. A. et al. The International Soil Moisture Network: serving Earth system science for over a decade. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 25, 5749–5804 (2021). This article describes the International Soil Moisture Network, its sites, data and quality control procedures.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Araki, R., Morgan, B. E., McMillan, H. K. & Caylor, K. K. Nonlinear soil moisture loss function reveals vegetation responses to water availability. Geophys. Res. Lett. 52, e2024GL111403 (2025). This study uses satellite data to show that the soil moisture loss function is nonlinear, despite historically being modelled as a linear function.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Morgan, B. E. et al. Ecological and hydroclimatic determinants of vegetation water-use strategies. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02810-8 (2025).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Plant responses to water stress revealed from soil moisture dynamics. Nat Ecol Evol 9, 1765–1766 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02826-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02826-0

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing