Soil moisture and atmospheric dryness govern regional controls of land–atmosphere water and heat fluxes on the Tibetan Plateau

Soil moisture and atmospheric dryness govern regional controls of land–atmosphere water and heat fluxes on the Tibetan Plateau | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Soil moisture and atmospheric dryness govern regional controls of land–atmosphere water and heat fluxes on the Tibetan Plateau Binbin Wang, zhengling cai, Weimo Li, Xiaowen Zhou, Xingdong Shi, and 9 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8770438/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Water and heat flux exchanges over the Tibetan Plateau strongly affect Asian and global climate, yet sparse observations leave their controlling mechanisms poorly understood. Using eddy-covariance data from 19 sites, we identify the controls on latent (LE) and sensible (H) heat fluxes and evaluate flux products. The results reveal regional contrasts in the controls on LE: in humid regions, LE is primarily driven by net radiation (Rn); in semi-humid regions, higher shallow volumetric water content (shallow VWC) shifts LE from water-limited to energy-limited; and in arid and semi-arid regions, shallow VWC and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) jointly regulate LE. These contrasts arise from changes in how surface conductance (Gs) responds to shallow VWC and VPD: in arid and semi-arid regions, higher shallow VWC enhances the sensitivity of Gs to VPD and increases the reference conductance (Gs_ref), whereas higher VPD rapidly reduces Gs and thereby suppresses LE. Biases in flux products stem from inaccurate representation of these key control processes. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Atmospheric science Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Hydrology Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files supplementarymaterials.docx Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8770438","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":586313768,"identity":"b00145a4-2217-4649-8c66-26fee4667822","order_by":0,"name":"Binbin 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