Water-protein coupled interactions are essential to the protein structural stability, flexibility and dynamic functions. The ultimate effects of the hydration dynamics on the protein fluctuations remain substantially unexplored. Here, we investigated the dynamics of both hydration water and protein sidechains at 13 different sites around the polymerase beta protein surface using a tryptophan scan with femtosecond spectroscopy. Three types of hydration-water relaxations and two types of protein sidechain motions were determined, reflecting a highly dynamic water-protein interactions fluctuating on the picosecond time scales. The hydration-water dynamics dominate the coupled interactions with higher flexibility. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.