Dew Characterization and its Ecological Effects on Vegetation: A Review

Abstract Dew is ubiquitous but also the least studied hydrological component in most ecosystems. Dew can serve as a supplementary water source for sustaining plant growth and potentially play an important role in broader ecosystem functions, especially in drylands. However, there is still no unified comprehension of the ecological effects of dew on plants. In this review, we focus on vascular plants and summarize recent advances in the understanding of the effects of dew across diverse vegetation types and climatic regions, including the distribution of dew formation and key dew characteristics, the mechanisms by which dew influences ecosystem water, carbon, and energy fluxes, and dew quantification and modeling. We also provide a detailed synthesis of its ecological roles across scales from the leaf to the plant and ecosystem levels. This comprehensive overview synthesizes current evidence on the connections between dew formation patterns, their ecological mechanisms, and consequences, and outlines future research directions to advance understanding of dew‐ecosystem interactions.