Soil moisture and ecosystem vegetation health effects on drought severity

Muhammad Abrar Faiz; Liangliang Zhang; Dong Liu; Mo Li; Qiang Fu; Muhammad Uzair Qamar; Xiaochen Qi; Tianxiao Li; Song Cui; Ning Ma

doi:10.1016/j.jare.2025.06.080

Soil moisture and ecosystem vegetation health effects on drought severity

J Adv Res. 2025 Jun 28:S2090-1232(25)00489-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jare.2025.06.080. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Muhammad Abrar Faiz¹, Liangliang Zhang², Dong Liu³, Mo Li⁴, Qiang Fu⁵, Muhammad Uzair Qamar⁶, Xiaochen Qi⁷, Tianxiao Li⁸, Song Cui⁹, Ning Ma¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: faiz_ma@neau.edu.cn.
² School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: zhangliangliang@neau.edu.cn.
³ School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China; Joint International Research Laboratory of Habitat Health of Black Soil in Cold Regions, Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China; Key Laboratory of Effective Utilization of Agricultural Water Resources of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China; Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Water Conservancy Engineering in Cold Region, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: liudong@neau.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: limo0828@neau.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: fuqiang@neau.edu.cn.
⁶ South Coast Natural Resource Region, Ministry of Water, Land and Resources Stewardship, Canada. Electronic address: uzair.qamar@gov.bc.ca.
⁷ School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: z11745@neau.edu.cn.
⁸ School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: litianxiao@neau.edu.cn.
⁹ School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China; Research Center for Eco-Environment Protection of Songhua River Basin, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150030, China. Electronic address: cuisong-bq@neau.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: ningma@igsnrr.ac.cn.

PMID: 40588028
DOI: 10.1016/j.jare.2025.06.080

Abstract

Introduction: Droughts are expected to become more severe due to climate disturbances, posing a serious risk to ecosystems. Therefore, quantifying the drought severity and the resilience of soil moisture and vegetation greening is essential for studying whether the local ecosystem is approaching an alternative state that may be dangerous for agriculture.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the interactions among vegetation, soil moisture, and drought severity to identify the sensitivity of grid cells to drought under maximum cumulative water deficit critical thresholds and the influence of adaptation factors.

Methods: Drought severity and climate disturbance in a local ecosystem were quantified using dynamically adjusted thresholds, a composite drought index, and a dimensionless index based on water-use efficiency.

Results: Moderate and severe drought events were observed using only the drought index. However, these identified events differed across grid cells using the leaf area index representing vegetation health and soil moisture thresholds, suggesting less coverage of drought-affected areas. A substantially reduced drought severity event using adaptation factors showed that local climate and adaptation could significantly change these events.

Conclusions: These findings provide new insights into vegetation greening and soil moisture resilience in various regions under drought conditions. The adaptation factor approach significantly reduced the severity of drought tipping events, indicating that local climate and adaptation may affect drought tipping events.

Keywords: Adaptation; Climate; Severe droughts; Tipping points; Water-use efficiency.