Extreme events like drought and wildfire are becoming more frequent and intense, threatening agriculture and naturally vegetated ecosystems around the globe. Changes to the state of vegetation as a result of drought and fire directly impact the land’s ability to store and move carbon and water. Understanding how extreme events alter the role of vegetation in local to global carbon and water cycles is a critical need for predicting how the land will respond to future changes in climate and for managing land resources under uncertain weather conditions. My dissertation work addresses this gap by exploring how vegetation growth, water availability, and atmospheric conditions shape ecosystem responses to drought and fire. The approach is to identify climatic factors and physical mechanisms driving ecosystem change and to quantify their associated uncertainties using a combination of field measurements, satellite remote sensing techniques, and physically-based land-surface hydrology modeling. I will present results from studies that: 1) investigates how and why plant growth and photosynthesis were disrupted during the 2012 Flash Drought in the Midwest US, 2) develops a continental-scale, high-resolution atmospheric aridity dataset to assess drought conditions and evaluate plant water stress, 3) explores the interplay between wildfire, land cover change, and climate in a Florida wetland, and 4) evaluates differences in vegetation regrowth patterns after fire events using  satellite observations and  ground-based measurements. Results demonstrate how high atmospheric aridity intensifies drought-induced plant water stress, increases fire risk, and reduces vegetation growth and carbon sequestration by up to 50%. This research advances the ability to predict vegetation-atmosphere interactions in response to droughts and fire, improving understanding of ecosystem resilience and informing land management strategies aimed at mitigating climate risks.