---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
_id: '22500'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Terrestrial ecosystems have been serving as a strong carbon sink that offsets
    one-quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Carbon use efficiency (CUE), the percentage
    of photosynthesized carbon that is available for biomass production and other
    secondary carbon products, is one factor determining the carbon sink size. The
    global variation in CUE remains unclear, however, as recent reports disagree over
    the responses of CUE to temperature, dryness, forest types and stand age, and
    there are limited direct observations to constrain the related uncertainty. Here,
    we propose to infer CUE from spatially distributed observations of land–atmosphere
    CO2 exchange from global eddy covariance sites based on the degree of ecosystem
    respiration–photosynthesis coupling. Across 2,737 site-years, CUE derived from
    eddy covariance observations is 0.43 ± 0.12, consistent with previous inventory-based
    estimates (0.47 ± 0.12, n = 301) but with a better representation of spatial–temporal
    variation in CUE. We find that CUE consistently decreases with temperature, precipitation,
    light availability and stand age, with a substantial difference in the baseline
    CUE among biomes. Importantly, CUE of deciduous forests is typically 15% higher
    than that of evergreen forests, suggesting that over the long-term deciduous forests
    are more efficient in using photosynthate. Our study advances the understanding
    of the global variation in CUE and provides insights to guide best practices of
    forest conservation, management and restoration for carbon sequestration.
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Xiangzhong
  full_name: Luo, Xiangzhong
  last_name: Luo
- first_name: Ruiying
  full_name: Zhao, Ruiying
  last_name: Zhao
- first_name: Housen
  full_name: Chu, Housen
  last_name: Chu
- first_name: Alessio
  full_name: Collalti, Alessio
  last_name: Collalti
- first_name: Simone
  full_name: Fatichi, Simone
  id: cf8e546b-a9b0-11f0-a43b-aa89ed1b56d6
  last_name: Fatichi
- first_name: Trevor F.
  full_name: Keenan, Trevor F.
  last_name: Keenan
- first_name: Xinchen
  full_name: Lu, Xinchen
  last_name: Lu
- first_name: Ngoc
  full_name: Nguyen, Ngoc
  last_name: Nguyen
- first_name: I. Colin
  full_name: Prentice, I. Colin
  last_name: Prentice
- first_name: Wu
  full_name: Sun, Wu
  last_name: Sun
- first_name: Kailiang
  full_name: Yu, Kailiang
  last_name: Yu
- first_name: Liyao
  full_name: Yu, Liyao
  last_name: Yu
citation:
  ama: Luo X, Zhao R, Chu H, et al. Global variation in vegetation carbon use efficiency
    inferred from eddy covariance observations. <i>Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution</i>.
    2025;9:1414-1425. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0">10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0</a>
  apa: Luo, X., Zhao, R., Chu, H., Collalti, A., Fatichi, S., Keenan, T. F., … Yu,
    L. (2025). Global variation in vegetation carbon use efficiency inferred from
    eddy covariance observations. <i>Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution</i>. Springer
    Science and Business Media LLC. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0</a>
  chicago: Luo, Xiangzhong, Ruiying Zhao, Housen Chu, Alessio Collalti, Simone Fatichi,
    Trevor F. Keenan, Xinchen Lu, et al. “Global Variation in Vegetation Carbon Use
    Efficiency Inferred from Eddy Covariance Observations.” <i>Nature Ecology &#38;
    Evolution</i>. Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0</a>.
  ieee: X. Luo <i>et al.</i>, “Global variation in vegetation carbon use efficiency
    inferred from eddy covariance observations,” <i>Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution</i>,
    vol. 9. Springer Science and Business Media LLC, pp. 1414–1425, 2025.
  ista: Luo X, Zhao R, Chu H, Collalti A, Fatichi S, Keenan TF, Lu X, Nguyen N, Prentice
    IC, Sun W, Yu K, Yu L. 2025. Global variation in vegetation carbon use efficiency
    inferred from eddy covariance observations. Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution. 9,
    1414–1425.
  mla: Luo, Xiangzhong, et al. “Global Variation in Vegetation Carbon Use Efficiency
    Inferred from Eddy Covariance Observations.” <i>Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution</i>,
    vol. 9, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025, pp. 1414–25, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0">10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0</a>.
  short: X. Luo, R. Zhao, H. Chu, A. Collalti, S. Fatichi, T.F. Keenan, X. Lu, N.
    Nguyen, I.C. Prentice, W. Sun, K. Yu, L. Yu, Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution 9
    (2025) 1414–1425.
das_tickbox: '1'
date_created: 2026-07-27T12:30:24Z
date_published: 2025-06-25T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-08-07T09:51:44Z
day: '25'
doi: 10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0
extern: '1'
external_id:
  pmid:
  - '40537545'
fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0
intvolume: '         9'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02753-0
month: '06'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: 1414-1425
pmid: 1
publication: Nature Ecology & Evolution
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2397-334X
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Global variation in vegetation carbon use efficiency inferred from eddy covariance
  observations
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by_nc_nd.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
    (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
  short: CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd
volume: 9
year: '2025'
...