Summer atmospheric drying could contribute more to soil moisture change than spring vegetation greening

Widespread spring vegetation greening (inferred by LAI) in the Northern Hemisphere leads to additional summer soil moisture (SM) deficits through increasing transpiration. Meanwhile, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) has also been rising, which can increase atmospheric evaporative demand. However, the ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NPJ climate and atmospheric science 2024-12, Vol.7 (1), p.296-10
Main Authors: Chen, Xiao, Wang, Jialin, Pan, Feifei, Huang, Binxiang, Bi, Pengshuai, Huang, Na, Gao, Riping, Men, Jingyu, Zhang, Fangxiao, Huang, Zhanrui, Long, Buju, Liang, Ju, Pan, Zhihua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/242
704/106/694
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Climate adaptation
Climate change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Climatology
Correlation analysis
Drought
Drying
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Global warming
Greening
Hydrologic cycle
Northern Hemisphere
Precipitation
Remote sensing
Soil moisture
Soil water
Spring
Spring (season)
Statistical methods
Summer
Surface water
Transpiration
Trends
Vapor pressure
Vegetation
Water management
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Summary:Widespread spring vegetation greening (inferred by LAI) in the Northern Hemisphere leads to additional summer soil moisture (SM) deficits through increasing transpiration. Meanwhile, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) has also been rising, which can increase atmospheric evaporative demand. However, the extent and magnitude of influence of these two factors on SM changes have not been elucidated. Here, based on the state-of-the-art reanalysis and remote sensing data, we use three statistical methods to quantify the contributions of spring LAI and summer VPD to summer SM deficit. The results show that summer VPD contributes more to SM change than spring LAI in the southwestern and northern regions of North America, northeastern Europe, and central and southeastern Asia, covering 13.4% of the vegetated areas despite of the certain influence of spring vegetation greening on summer soil drying. The results are of great significance for climate change adaptation and the enhancement of surface water management.
ISSN:2397-3722
DOI:10.1038/s41612-024-00844-6