# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/plant-water-relations-and-carbon-dynamics/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics research in the Class of 2026?

Plant water relations research in 2024 shifted decisively toward dynamic carbon-water coupling and climate stress thresholds. Soil moisture anchored top literature, while gross primary productivity (+10%), carbon flux (+8%), and elevated CO2 (+8%) expanded rapidly. Broad evapotranspiration terms declined (-8%), reflecting an evolving focus on mechanistic ecohydrological flux modeling.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 6,551 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Soil moisture, carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration, gross primary productivity, carbon flux |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 62–141 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved Jul 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Global rise in forest fire emissions linked to climate change in the extratropics | Matthew W Jones, Sander Veraverbeke, Niels Andela, Stefan H Doerr, Crystal Kolden, Guilherme Mataveli, M Lucrecia Pettinari, Corinne Le Quéré, Thais M Rosan, Guido R van der Werf, Dave van Wees, John T Abatzoglou | Matthew W. Jones | University of East Anglia, United Kingdom | Science | 141 | 10.1126/science.adl5889 |
| 2 | Global influence of soil texture on ecosystem water limitation | Fabian J P Wankmüller, Louis Delval, Peter Lehmann, Martin J Baur, Andrea Cecere, Sebastian Wolf, Dani Or, Mathieu Javaux, Andrea Carminati | Mathieu Javaux, Andrea Carminati | ETH Zurich, Switzerland | Nature | 129 | 10.1038/s41586-024-08089-2 |
| 3 | Dominant role of soil moisture in mediating carbon and water fluxes in dryland ecosystems | Steven A. Kannenberg, William R. L. Anderegg, Mallory L. Barnes, Matthew P. Dannenberg, Alan K. Knapp | Steven A. Kannenberg | Colorado State University, United States | Nature Geoscience | 107 | 10.1038/s41561-023-01351-8 |
| 4 | Global critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress | Zheng Fu, Philippe Ciais, Jean-Pierre Wigneron, Pierre Gentine, Andrew F Feldman, David Makowski, Nicolas Viovy, Armen R Kemanian, Daniel S Goll, Paul C Stoy, Iain Colin Prentice, Dan Yakir, Liyang Liu, Hongliang Ma, Xiaojun Li, Yuanyuan Huang, Kailiang Yu, Peng Zhu, Xing Li, Zaichun Zhu, Jinghui Lian, William K Smith | Zheng Fu | Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China | Nature Communications | 106 | 10.1038/s41467-024-49244-7 |
| 5 | Biodiversity loss reduces global terrestrial carbon storage | Sarah R Weiskopf, Forest Isbell, Maria Isabel Arce-Plata, Moreno Di Marco, Mike Harfoot, Justin Johnson, Susannah B Lerman, Brian W Miller, Toni Lyn Morelli, Akira S Mori, Ensheng Weng, Simon Ferrier | Sarah R. Weiskopf | U.S. Geological Survey, United States | Nature Communications | 95 | 10.1038/s41467-024-47872-7 |
| 6 | Plant Adaptation to Drought Stress: The Role of Anatomical and Morphological Characteristics in Maintaining the Water Status | Seyed Morteza Zahedi, Mahdieh Karimi, Alessandro Venditti, Noreen Zahra, Kadambot H. M. Siddique, Muhammad Farooq | Muhammad Farooq | University of Maragheh, Iran | Journal of soil science and plant nutrition | 93 | 10.1007/s42729-024-02141-w |
| 7 | Assessing the accuracy of OpenET satellite-based evapotranspiration data to support water resource and land management applications | John Volk, Justin Huntington, Forrest Melton, Richard G. Allen, Martha C. Anderson, Joshua B. Fisher, Ayşe Kiliç, Anderson Ruhoff, G. B. Senay, Blake Minor, Charles Morton, Thomas Ott, Lee Johnson, Bruno Comini de Andrade, Will Carrara, Conor T. Doherty, Christian Dunkerly, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Alberto Guzman, Christopher Hain, Gregory Halverson, Yanghui Kang, Kyle Knipper, Leonardo Laipelt, Samuel Ortega‐Salazar, Christopher Pearson, Gabriel E.L. Parrish, A. J. Purdy, Peter ReVelle, Tianxin Wang, Yun Yang | John Volk | Desert Research Institute, United States | Nature Water | 90 | 10.1038/s44221-023-00181-7 |
| 8 | Plant responses to changing rainfall frequency and intensity | Andrew F. Feldman, Xue Feng, Andrew J. Felton, Alexandra G. Konings, Alan K. Knapp, Joel A. Biederman, Benjamin Poulter | Andrew F. Feldman | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, United States | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 77 | 10.1038/s43017-024-00534-0 |
| 9 | Black biodegradable mulching increases grain yield and net return while decreasing carbon footprint in rain-fed conditions of the Loess Plateau | Nanping Lin, Xiaoqi Luo, J.S. Wen, Jiankang Fu, Haolei Zhang, Kadambot H. M. Siddique, Hao Feng, Ying Zhao | Hao Feng, Ying Zhao | Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Field Crops Research | 77 | 10.1016/j.fcr.2024.109590 |
| 10 | Exploring spatiotemporal dynamics of NDVI and climate-driven responses in ecosystems: Insights for sustainable management and climate resilience | Kaleem Mehmood, Shoaib Ahmad Anees, Akhtar Rehman, Shao’an Pan, Aqil Tariq, Muhammad Zubair, Qijing Liu, Fazli Rabbi, Khalid Ali Khan, Mi Luo | Shoaib Ahmad Anees, Mi Luo | Beijing Forestry University, China | Ecological Informatics | 74 | 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2024.102532 |
| 11 | Maximizing carbon sequestration potential in Chinese forests through optimal management | Zhen Yu, Shirong Liu, Haikui Li, Jingjing Liang, Weiguo Liu, Shilong Piao, Hanqin Tian, Guoyi Zhou, Chaoqun Lu, Weibin You, Pengsen Sun, Yanli Dong, Stephen Sitch, Evgenios Agathokleous | Zhen Yu, Shirong Liu | Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China | Nature Communications | 73 | 10.1038/s41467-024-47143-5 |
| 12 | Extreme drought impacts have been underestimated in grasslands and shrublands globally | Melinda D Smith, Kate D Wilkins, Martin C Holdrege, Peter Wilfahrt, Scott L Collins, Alan K Knapp, Osvaldo E Sala, Jeffrey S Dukes, Richard P Phillips, Laura Yahdjian, Laureano A Gherardi, Timothy Ohlert, Claus Beier, Lauchlan H Fraser, Anke Jentsch, Michael E Loik, Fernando T Maestre, Sally A Power, Qiang Yu, Andrew J Felton, Seth M Munson, Yiqi Luo, Hamed Abdoli, Mehdi Abedi, Concepción L Alados, Juan Alberti, Moshe Alon, Hui An, Brian Anacker, Maggie Anderson, Harald Auge, Seton Bachle, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Michael Bahn, Amgaa Batbaatar, Taryn Bauerle, Karen H Beard, Kai Behn, Ilka Beil, Lucio Biancari, Irmgard Blindow, Viviana Florencia Bondaruk, Elizabeth T Borer, Edward W Bork, Carlos Martin Bruschetti, Kerry M Byrne, James F Cahill, Dianela A Calvo, Michele Carbognani, Augusto Cardoni, Cameron N Carlyle, Miguel Castillo-Garcia, Scott X Chang, Jeff Chieppa, Marcus V Cianciaruso, Ofer Cohen, Amanda L Cordeiro, Daniela F Cusack, Sven Dahlke, Pedro Daleo, Carla M D'Antonio, Lee H Dietterich, Tim S Doherty, Maren Dubbert, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Felícia M Fischer, T'ai G W Forte, Tobias Gebauer, Beatriz Gozalo, Aaron C Greenville, Karlo G Guidoni-Martins, Heather J Hannusch, Siri Vatsø Haugum, Yann Hautier, Mariet Hefting, Hugh A L Henry, Daniela Hoss, Johannes Ingrisch, Oscar Iribarne, Forest Isbell, Yari Johnson, Samuel Jordan, Eugene F Kelly, Kaitlin Kimmel, Juergen Kreyling, György Kröel-Dulay, Alicia Kröpfl, Angelika Kübert, Andrew Kulmatiski, Eric G Lamb, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Julie Larson, Jason Lawson, Cintia V Leder, Anja Linstädter, Jielin Liu, Shirong Liu, Alexandra G Lodge, Grisel Longo, Alejandro Loydi, Junwei Luan, Frederick Curtis Lubbe, Craig Macfarlane, Kathleen Mackie-Haas, Andrey V Malyshev, Adrián Maturano-Ruiz, Thomas Merchant, Daniel B Metcalfe, Akira S Mori, Edwin Mudongo, Gregory S Newman, Uffe N Nielsen, Dale Nimmo, Yujie Niu, Paola Nobre, Rory C O'Connor, Romà Ogaya, Gastón R Oñatibia, Ildikó Orbán, Brooke Osborne, Rafael Otfinowski, Meelis Pärtel, Josep Penuelas, Pablo L Peri, Guadalupe Peter, Alessandro Petraglia, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Valério D Pillar, Juan Manuel Piñeiro-Guerra, Laura W Ploughe, Robert M Plowes, Cristy Portales-Reyes, Suzanne M Prober, Yolanda Pueyo, Sasha C Reed, Euan G Ritchie, Dana Aylén Rodríguez, William E Rogers, Christiane Roscher, Ana M Sánchez, Bráulio A Santos, María Cecilia Scarfó, Eric W Seabloom, Baoku Shi, Lara Souza, Andreas Stampfli, Rachel J Standish, Marcelo Sternberg, Wei Sun, Marie Sünnemann, Michelle Tedder, Pål Thorvaldsen, Dashuan Tian, Katja Tielbörger, Alejandro Valdecantos, Liesbeth van den Brink, Vigdis Vandvik, Mathew R Vankoughnett, Liv Guri Velle, Changhui Wang, Yi Wang, Glenda M Wardle, Christiane Werner, Cunzheng Wei, Georg Wiehl, Jennifer L Williams, Amelia A Wolf, Michaela Zeiter, Fawei Zhang, Juntao Zhu, Ning Zong, Xiaoan Zuo | Melinda D. Smith, Kate Wilkins | Colorado State University, United States | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 72 | 10.1073/pnas.2309881120 |
| 13 | Enhanced observations from an optimized soil-canopy-photosynthesis and energy flux model revealed evapotranspiration-shading cooling dynamics of urban vegetation during extreme heat | Zhaowu Yu, Jiaqi Chen, Jike Chen, Wenfeng Zhan, Chenghao Wang, Wenjuan Ma, Xihan Yao, Siqi Zhou, Kai Zhu, Ranhao Sun | Zhaowu Yu | Fudan University, China | Remote Sensing of Environment | 71 | 10.1016/j.rse.2024.114098 |
| 14 | Temperature responses of ecosystem respiration | Shuli Niu, Weinan Chen, Lìyı̌n Liáng, Carlos A. Sierra, Jianyang Xia, Song Wang, Mary Heskel, Kaizad Patel, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Jinsong Wang, D. Yvon, Miko U. F. Kirschbaum, Owen K. Atkin, Yuanyuan Huang, Guirui Yu, Yiqi Luo | Shuli Niu | University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 71 | 10.1038/s43017-024-00569-3 |
| 15 | Climate-induced tree-mortality pulses are obscured by broad-scale and long-term greening | Yuchao Yan, Shilong Piao, William M Hammond, Anping Chen, Songbai Hong, Hao Xu, Seth M Munson, Ranga B Myneni, Craig D Allen | Shilong Piao, Anping Chen | Peking University, China | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 70 | 10.1038/s41559-024-02372-1 |
| 16 | Tree water uptake patterns across the globe | Christoph Bachofen, Shersingh Joseph Tumber-Dávila, D Scott Mackay, Nate G McDowell, Andrea Carminati, Tamir Klein, Benjamin D Stocker, Maurizio Mencuccini, Charlotte Grossiord | Christoph Bachofen | EPFL, Switzerland | New Phytologist | 69 | 10.1111/nph.19762 |
| 17 | Microbial competition for phosphorus limits the CO2 response of a mature forest | Mingkai Jiang, Kristine Y Crous, Yolima Carrillo, Catriona A Macdonald, Ian C Anderson, Matthias M Boer, Mark Farrell, Andrew N Gherlenda, Laura Castañeda-Gómez, Shun Hasegawa, Klaus Jarosch, Paul J Milham, Rául Ochoa-Hueso, Varsha Pathare, Johanna Pihlblad, Juan Piñeiro, Jeff R Powell, Sally A Power, Peter B Reich, Markus Riegler, Sönke Zaehle, Benjamin Smith, Belinda E Medlyn, David S Ellsworth | Kristine Y. Crous | Zhejiang University, China | Nature | 69 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07491-0 |
| 18 | Future increase in compound soil drought-heat extremes exacerbated by vegetation greening | Jun Li, Yao Zhang, Emanuele Bevacqua, Jakob Zscheischler, Trevor F Keenan, Xu Lian, Sha Zhou, Hongying Zhang, Mingzhu He, Shilong Piao | Yao Zhang | Peking University, China | Nature Communications | 63 | 10.1038/s41467-024-55175-0 |
| 19 | Assisted tree migration can preserve the European forest carbon sink under climate change | Debojyoti Chakraborty, Albert Ciceu, Dalibor Ballian, Marta Benito Garzón, Andreas Bolte, Gregor Božič, Rafael Buchacher, Jaroslav Čepl, Eva Cremer, Alexis Ducousso, Julian Gaviria, Jan‐Peter George, André Hardtke, Mladen Ivanković, Marcin Klisz, J. Kowalczyk, Antoine Kremer, Milan Lstibůrek, Roman Longauer, Georgeta Mihai, László Nagy, Krasimira Petkova, E. Popov, Randolf Schirmer, Tore Skrøppa, Thomas Mørtvedt Solvin, Arne Steffenrem, Jan Stejskal, Srđan Stojnić, Katharina Volmer, Silvio Schueler | Silvio Schueler | Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW), Austria | Nature Climate Change | 62 | 10.1038/s41558-024-02080-5 |
| 20 | Large global-scale vegetation sensitivity to daily rainfall variability | Andrew F Feldman, Alexandra G Konings, Pierre Gentine, Mitra Cattry, Lixin Wang, William K Smith, Joel A Biederman, Abhishek Chatterjee, Joanna Joiner, Benjamin Poulter | Andrew F. Feldman | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, United States | Nature | 62 | 10.1038/s41586-024-08232-z |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

Research in the Class of 2026 centers on the tight coupling between plant water availability and terrestrial carbon cycling under environmental change. Soil moisture serves as the foundational anchor, appearing in 14% of top-ranked studies (7 of 50 papers). Three major functional metrics—carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration, and gross primary productivity (GPP)—each define 10% of the high-impact corpus (5 papers each), reflecting a strong emphasis on quantifying ecosystem-scale carbon uptake and water loss.

A distinct cluster of mechanistic and modeling concepts prominent in the top papers includes carbon flux, Earth system models, elevated CO2, leaf area index, and stomatal conductance, each representing 8% of publications (4 papers each). These studies examine how plant physiological regulation directly governs land-atmosphere exchanges. Furthermore, ecohydrological drivers such as drylands, evaporative demand, land-atmosphere interactions, latent heat flux, precipitation reduction, and soil moisture thresholds each feature in 6% of the corpus (3 papers each). Collectively, this thematic landscape illustrates how current research integrates fine-scale leaf stomatal responses with macro-scale ecohydrological modeling to resolve ecosystem resilience under climate variability.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

The transition from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026 reveals a significant thematic shift toward dynamic flux modeling and experimental stress controls. The most dramatic rise occurred in gross primary productivity, surging from 0% in 2023 to 10% of top papers in 2024 (+10 percentage points, 5 papers). Parallel increases were recorded for carbon flux and elevated CO2 (both rising from 0% to 8%, +8 percentage points), alongside rapid emergence in drylands, latent heat flux, precipitation reduction, soil moisture thresholds, and soil temperature (all expanding from 0% to 6%, +6 percentage points). Carbon sequestration also gained momentum, growing from 6% to 10% (+4 percentage points).

Conversely, several broad observational and baseline terms contracted. Evapotranspiration experienced the largest drop, declining from 18% in 2023 (9 papers) to 10% in 2024 (5 papers, -8 percentage points). Ecosystem carbon storage similarly eased from 10% to 6% (-4 percentage points), while land-atmosphere interactions, remote sensing vegetation indices, and vapor pressure deficit each shifted down from 8% to 6% (-2 percentage points). This shift highlights a reorientation away from general moisture monitoring toward predictive, threshold-driven carbon-water interaction models.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/plant-water-relations-and-carbon-dynamics/2026. Accessed 2026-07-29.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```