Drought, Land Use, and Ecosystem Feedbacks Under Global Climate Change

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosphere/Hydrosphere/Land–Atmosphere Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 1405

Special Issue Editors

School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Interests: climate change impacts on ecology; land use optimization; remote sensing for drought monitoring; human–environment interactions in arid regions

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Guest Editor
College of Forestry and Prataculture, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
Interests: forest hydrological effects; land use evolution; water–carbon cycles in arid regions; restoration and management of degraded ecosystems

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Guest Editor
Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development Research Center, Henan University, Kaifeng, China
Interests: geographical detector model optimization; land degradation and restoration; remote sensing and GIS modeling; ecosystem feedbacks to climate change; multiscale environmental analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change has profoundly altered the frequency, intensity, and spatial extent of drought events, subsequently impacting land surface processes and biosphere–hydrosphere interactions. This Special Issue, “Drought, Land Use, and Ecosystem Feedbacks Under Global Climate Change”, aims to compile cutting-edge research that explores how droughts affect soil moisture dynamics, vegetation responses, evapotranspiration, and surface energy balance across various temporal and spatial scales. We welcome studies using remote sensing, in situ observations, land surface modeling, and climate simulations to improve the understanding of drought mechanisms and feedbacks in the land–atmosphere system. We particularly seek studies that emphasize the role of extreme droughts in modifying land surface conditions and amplifying climate feedbacks and how land use and land cover changes mediate these interactions. Contributions that link drought phenomena with carbon–water cycles, ecohydrological responses, or agricultural productivity are also encouraged. By integrating multidisciplinary perspectives, this Special Issue hopes to support the development of more robust drought prediction tools and climate resilience strategies under a rapidly changing climate.

Dr. Panxing He
Prof. Dr. Lei Huang
Dr. Xiaoyu Meng​​
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • land surface processes
  • drought
  • soil moisture
  • evapotranspiration
  • land–atmosphere interactions
  • climate change
  • vegetation response
  • remote sensing
  • ecohydrology
  • surface energy balance

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

30 pages, 3636 KB  
Review
Warming Reshapes Land-Atmosphere Coupling: The LST-SM-ET-GPP Framework
by Ruihan Mi, Xuedong Zhao, Ying Ma, Xiangyu Zhang, Leer Bao and Bin Jin
Atmosphere 2026, 17(4), 352; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos17040352 - 31 Mar 2026
Viewed by 795
Abstract
Against the backdrop of accelerated terrestrial hydrological cycling and the increasing concurrence of drought-heatwave compound extremes under global warming, regional land-atmosphere coupling has emerged as a central mechanism shaping climate feedbacks and trajectories of ecosystem carbon uptake. However, prior studies spanning climatic regimes, [...] Read more.
Against the backdrop of accelerated terrestrial hydrological cycling and the increasing concurrence of drought-heatwave compound extremes under global warming, regional land-atmosphere coupling has emerged as a central mechanism shaping climate feedbacks and trajectories of ecosystem carbon uptake. However, prior studies spanning climatic regimes, observational scales, and data sources have often yielded contradictory conclusions. Here, we challenge these fragmented perspectives by constructing an integrated LST-SM-ET-GPP chain that jointly represents land surface temperature, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and gross primary productivity, thereby linking water availability, surface energy balance, and plant physiological processes within a unified framework. We synthesize a conceptual diagnostic roadmap for interpreting land-atmosphere coupling across observations and models. When ecosystems operate in humid, energy-limited environments, radiative and advective controls should be prioritized to diagnose system forcing. By contrast, as the system becomes water-depleted, attribution must shift to a nonlinear regime transition framework governed by a critical soil moisture threshold. This threshold mechanism implies that, once the system enters the moisture-limited regime, even modest declines in soil moisture can trigger a rapid weakening of evaporative cooling, substantially amplifying LST anomalies and strongly suppressing GPP. The competitive regulation of stomatal conductance by atmospheric demand (vapor pressure deficit, VPD) and terrestrial supply (rootzone soil moisture) further explains why the “dominant” controlling factor can dynamically reverse across hydrothermal states, timescales, and stages of extreme-event evolution. Notably, the steady-state coupling assumption may break down under flux “flooring” during extreme drought, or when structural buffering such as deep root water uptake is present, delineating strict applicability bounds for existing diagnostic frameworks. Finally, current assessments remain constrained by multiple uncertainties, particularly the lack of ET partitioning constraints, representativeness biases arising from clear-sky observations and sampling-depth limitations, and systematic errors in Earth system model simulations during the warm season. Full article
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