Understanding vegetation drought legacy effects on carbon cycling using observations from multiple platforms

Drought legacy effects refer to the lasting impacts on the carbon cycle from droughts, being a prime uncertainty in predicting future land carbon sink in a changing climate. While previous studies have been focusing on the drought legacy effects on tree growth using tree ring chronologies, the rapid developments of site and satellite observations over the past decades provide us new opportunities to investigate the effects with improved temporal and spatial coverage. For example, retrievals of canopy structure, photosynthesis, evapotranspiration, and vegetation water content would allow for evaluating the differences in recovery processes in magnitude, timing and duration of the legacy effects. Potential asynchrony and divergence among these multiple legacy indicators result in large uncertainties in understanding the full range of vegetation responses to drought. To address this issue, this study aims to leverage the development of a new generation Earth system model (CliMA) in combination with site and satellite observations to understand the various legacy effects on carbon sink responses from site to regional scales. Through investigating the temporal and spatial patterns of legacy effects, our work will gain a comprehensive understanding of drought related carbon cycle feedback and benefit science-based decision making facing changing climate, especially extreme events.