Abstract. Plant transpiration links physiological responses of vegetation to water supply and demand with hydrological, energy, and carbon budgets at the land–atmosphere interface. However, despite being the main land evaporative flux at the global scale, transpiration and its response to environmental drivers are currently not well constrained by observations. Here we introduce the first global compilation of whole-plant transpiration data from sap flow measurements (SAPFLUXNET, https://sapfluxnet.creaf.cat/, last access: 8 June 2021). We harmonized and quality-controlled individual datasets supplied by contributors worldwide in a semi-automatic data workflow implemented in the R programming language. Datasets include sub-daily time series of sap flow and hydrometeorological drivers for one or more growing seasons, as well as metadata on the stand characteristics, plant attributes, and technical details of the measurements. SAPFLUXNET contains 202 globally distributed datasets with sap flow time series for 2714 plants, mostly trees, of 174 species. SAPFLUXNET has a broad bioclimatic coverage, with woodland/shrubland and temperate forest biomes especially well represented (80 % of the datasets). The measurements cover a wide variety of stand structural characteristics and plant sizes. The datasets encompass the period between 1995 and 2018, with 50 % of the datasets being at least 3 years long. Accompanying radiation and vapour pressure deficit data are available for most of the datasets, while on-site soil water content is available for 56 % of the datasets. Many datasets contain data for species that make up 90 % or more of the total stand basal area, allowing the estimation of stand transpiration in diverse ecological settings. SAPFLUXNET adds to existing plant trait datasets, ecosystem flux networks, and remote sensing products to help increase our understanding of plant water use, plant responses to drought, and ecohydrological processes. SAPFLUXNET version 0.1.5 is freely available from the Zenodo repository (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3971689; Poyatos et al., 2020a). The “sapfluxnetr” R package – designed to access, visualize, and process SAPFLUXNET data – is available from CRAN.

A key ecophysiological measurement is the flow of water (or sap) along the tree's water-transport system, which is an essential process for maintaining the hydraulic connection within the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum. The thermal dissipation method (TDM) is widespread in the scientific community for measuring sap flow and has provided novel insights into water use and its environmental sensitivity, from the tree- to the forest-stand level. Yet, methodological approaches to determine sap flux density (SFD) from raw TDM measurements remain case-specific, introducing uncertainties and hampering data syntheses and meta-analyses. Here, we introduce the r package TREX (TRee sap flow EXtractor), incorporating a wide range of sap flow data-processing procedures to quantify SFD from raw TDM measurements. TREX provides functions for (a) importing and assimilating raw measurements, (b) data quality control and filtering and (c) calculating standardized SFD outputs and their associated uncertainties according to different data-processing methods. A case study using a Norway spruce tree illustrates TREX's functionalities, featuring interactive data curation and generating outputs in a reproducible and transparent way. The calculations of SFD in TREX can, for instance, use the original TDM calibration coefficients, user-supplied calibration parameters or calibration data from a recently compiled database of 22 studies and 37 species. Moreover, the package includes an automatic procedure for quantifying the sensitivity and uncertainty of the obtained results to user-defined assumptions and parameter values, by means of a state-of-the-art global sensitivity analysis. Time series of plant ecophysiological measurements are becoming increasingly available and enhance our understanding of climate change impacts on tree functioning. TREX allows for establishing a baseline for data processing of TDM measurements and supports comparability between case studies, facilitating robust, transparent and reproducible large-scale syntheses of sap flow patterns. Moreover, TREX facilitates the simultaneous application of multiple common data-processing approaches to convert raw data to physiological relevant quantities. This allows for robust quantification of the impact (i.e. sensitivity and uncertainty) of user-specific choices and methodological assumptions, which is necessary for process understanding and policy making.

Trees play a key role in the global hydrological cycle and measurements performed with the thermal dissipation method (TDM) have been crucial in providing whole-tree water-use estimates. Yet, different data processing to calculate whole-tree water use encapsulates uncertainties that have not been systematically assessed. We quantified uncertainties in conifer sap flux density (Fd ) and stand water use caused by commonly applied methods for deriving zero-flow conditions, dampening and sensor calibration. Their contribution has been assessed using a stem segment calibration experiment and 4 yr of TDM measurements in Picea abies and Larix decidua growing in contrasting environments. Uncertainties were then projected on TDM data from different conifers across the northern hemisphere. Commonly applied methods mostly underestimated absolute Fd . Lacking a site- and species-specific calibrations reduced our stand water-use measurements by 37% and induced uncertainty in northern hemisphere Fd . Additionally, although the interdaily variability was maintained, disregarding dampening and/or applying zero-flow conditions that ignored night-time water use reduced the correlation between environment and Fd . The presented ensemble of calibration curves and proposed dampening correction, together with the systematic quantification of data-processing uncertainties, provide crucial steps in improving whole-tree water-use estimates across spatial and temporal scales.