<p>Mountain ecosystems have experienced intensified climate extremes such as heavy rainfall and drought in the past decades, fundamentally affecting the growth and survival of trees and shrubs. Recently, particular concerns have mainly focused on forest die-off or mortality associated to severe drought stress. However, the growth resilience of shrubs in response to wet and dry extremes is still largely unknown. In this study, four sites were selected on the south-central Tibetan Plateau (Nam Co and Nanmulin) and northeastern Spain (Napal and Villarroya) to characterize the climate-growth relationships of juniper shrubs under Monsoon (wet summer) and Mediterranean (dry summer) climate conditions. Growth resistance, recovery and resilience indices were calculated to assess the response of junipers to wet and dry spells. We found that juniper shrub growth was mainly limited by early growing season precipitation across the study sites. A distinct linkage was observed between growth and precipitation, with growth increasing in wet spells and decreasing during drought. Moreover, growth recovery and resilience were higher after wet than after dry spells. These results highlight that the survival of juniper shrubs may benefit from wet spells in harsh environments. Our findings further provide new research directions to evaluate the responses of shrubs to extreme climate events.</p>