Fig. 1. Strong coupling of soil moisture and vapor pressure deficit confounds ecosystem dryness stress.
a–c Spatial distribution of Pearson’s correlation coefficient between solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) and soil moisture (SM) (r(SIF, SM)), SIF and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) (r(SIF, VPD)), and SM and VPD (r(SM, VPD)), at the yearly scale. Regions with sparse vegetation and regions without valid data are masked in gray. d Relationship between yearly r(SIF, VPD) and yearly r(SIF,SM) across land vegetated areas. Color shows the relative density of data points, with higher density in black and lower density in yellow.