@article{8d639c913f594a0192854a2c2c55a11a,
title = "Convergence across biomes to a common rain-use efficiency",
abstract = "Water availability limits plant growth and production in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. However, biomes differ substantially in sensitivity of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) to between-year variation in precipitation. Average rain-use efficiency (RUE; ANPP/precipitation) also varies between biomes, supposedly because of differences in vegetation structure and/or biogeochemical constraints. Here we show that RUE decreases across biomes as mean annual precipitation increases. However, during the driest years at each site, there is convergence to a common maximum RUE (RUEmax) that is typical of arid ecosystems. RUEmax was also identified by experimentally altering the degree of limitation by water and other resources. Thus, in years when water is most limiting, deserts, grasslands and forests all exhibit the same rate of biomass production per unit rainfall, despite differences in physiognomy and site-level RUE. Global climate models predict increased between-year variability in precipitation, more frequent extreme drought events, and changes in temperature. Forecasts of future ecosystem behaviour should take into account this convergent feature of terrestrial biomes.",
author = "Huxman, {Travis E.} and Smith, {Melinda D.} and Fay, {Philip A.} and Knapp, {Alan K.} and Shaw, {M. Rebecca} and Lolk, {Michael E.} and Smith, {Stanley D.} and Tissue, {David T.} and Zak, {John C.} and Weltzin, {Jake F.} and Pockman, {William T.} and Sala, {Osvaldo E.} and Haddad, {Brent M.} and John Harte and Koch, {George W.} and Susan Schwinning and Small, {Eric E.} and Williams, {David G.}",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements We thank J. Bronstein, J. Cable, G. Davidowitz, A. Eilts, B. Enquist, D. Ignace, A. Kerkhoff, D. Potts, D. Schimel, L. Venable and M. Pavao-Zuckerman for comments on the manuscript. This work derived from an NCEAS working group, PrecipNet (principal investigator M.E.L.), supported by the National Science Foundation, the University of California, and the Santa Barbara campus. We acknowledge the support of the United States Department of Energy, the National Park Service, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Department of Agriculture. Funding Information: Acknowledgements This paper is dedicated to the memory of the Cuban naturalist Felipe Poey (1799–1891); see Supplementary Table 1 for details of the samples he collected in the 1850s. We thank C. Bell, A. Brandt, J. Brucksch, D. Castillo, N. Crumpler, M. Malasky, J. Minchoff, H. Otero, K. Scott, J. Tabler & E. Teeling. For samples, we thank the Parque Zoologico Nacional (ZOODOM) of the Dominican Republic; J. Chupasko at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology; and P. Giere at the Museum f{\"u}r Naturkunde, Humboldt-Universit{\"a}t zu Berlin. This publication has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.",
year = "2004",
month = jun,
day = "10",
doi = "10.1038/nature02561",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "429",
pages = "651--654",
journal = "Nature",
issn = "0028-0836",
publisher = "Nature Research",
number = "6992",
}