With increasing calls for improving terrestrial carbon sequestration and sustainable water use, scientists are faced with the challenge of predicting changes in carbon–water relations from organisms to landscapes. We propose an integrative framework to help in answering basic and applied questions pertaining to coupled carbon–water functions in a variety of ecosystems. The conceptual framework is based on data from a globally representative set of ecosystems that hold vast amounts of carbon and provide water for rural and urban land uses. We focus on examples that demonstrate the value of an integrated approach that combines fast- and slow-changing state factors (i.e., variables that define structural properties and functional processes at the soil–plant–atmosphere interface) to improve predictions of carbon–water relations across scales.

随着人们对改善陆地碳固存和可持续用水的呼声越来越高，科学家们面临着预测从生物到景观的碳水关系变化的挑战。我们提出了一个综合框架，以帮助回答与各种生态系统中碳水功能耦合有关的基本和应用问题。该概念框架基于一组具有全球代表性的生态系统的数据，这些生态系统拥有大量的碳，并为农村和城市土地使用提供水。我们将重点关注一些示例，这些示例演示了结合快速变化和缓慢变化的状态因子（即定义土壤-植物-大气界面的结构特性和功能过程的变量）以改善碳水关系预测的综合方法的价值。跨尺度。