Precipitation regimes primarily drive the carbon uptake in the Tibetan Plateau

•Precipitation-lagged ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau are more sensitive to biotic and environmental factors than unlagged ecosystems.•The precipitation regimes, instead of temperature and VPD, primarily drive the GPP variabilities in the Tibetan Plateau at the grid scale.•Precipitation might have a stronger impact on carbon uptake via variations in intra-distribution under future warming scenarios.