Dataset from: Variation in patterns of production and water-use efficiency among agroecosystems across the LTAR Network

Across agroecosystems, water is a key driver of primary production, and thus, the relationship between water and production (i.e., water-use efficiency; WUE) provides a relevant indicator for evaluating agroecosystem function. These data were used to characterize this relationship spanning diverse agroecosystems and climates represented by the USDA’s Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network. This dataset contains precipitation and aboveground net primary production (ANPP) across an extensive set of rainfed production systems and climate conditions, including rangelands, croplands, and pasturelands that span a precipitation gradient of 265-1347 mm yr-1. Data include long-term ANPP data from fifteen LTAR sites collected between 1983 and 2022, with record lengths ranging from 5 to 38 years, and corresponding annual precipitation amounts. These long-term data serve as an important resource for understanding how shifts in water availability with climate change may impact the ability of agricultural lands to produce the resources needed to support a growing human population.

在各类农业生态系统中，水分是驱动初级生产的核心因子，因此水分与生产之间的关联（即水分利用效率（water-use efficiency, WUE））可作为评估农业生态系统功能的重要指标。本数据集用于刻画上述关联，其覆盖美国农业部（United States Department of Agriculture, USDA）长期农业生态系统研究（Long-Term Agroecosystem Research, LTAR）网络所涵盖的多样农业生态系统与气候类型。本数据集包含多样雨养生产系统与气候条件下的降水量与地上净初级生产力（aboveground net primary production, ANPP）数据，涉及天然牧场、耕地与人工牧草地等土地类型，其覆盖的降水梯度为265~1347毫米/年。数据涵盖1983年至2022年间于15个LTAR站点采集的长期ANPP数据，各站点的记录时长跨度为5至38年，同时配套了对应年份的年降水量数据。这套长期数据集可为理解气候变化背景下水分可获得性的变化如何影响农田生产以满足日益增长的人口资源需求的能力，提供关键的研究支撑。