Summer soil drying exacerbated by earlier spring greening of northern vegetation

Lian, Xu; Piao, Shilong; Li, Laurent Z.X.; Li, Yue; Huntingford, Chris ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5941-7770; Ciais, Philippe; Cescatti, Alessandro; Janssens, Ivan A.; Peñuelas, Josep; Buermann, Wolfgang; Chen, Anping; Li, Xiangyi; Myneni, Ranga B.; Wang, Xuhui; Wang, Yilong; Yang, Yuting; Zeng, Zhenzhong; Zhang, Yongqiang; McVicar, Tim R.. 2020 Summer soil drying exacerbated by earlier spring greening of northern vegetation. Science Advances, 6 (1), eaax0255. 11, pp. 10.1126/sciadv.aax0255

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax0255

Abstract/Summary

Earlier vegetation greening under climate change raises evapotranspiration and thus lowers spring soil moisture, yet the extent and magnitude of this water deficit persistence into the following summer remain elusive. We provide observational evidence that increased foliage cover over the Northern Hemisphere, during 1982–2011, triggers an additional soil moisture deficit that is further carried over into summer. Climate model simulations independently support this and attribute the driving process to be larger increases in evapotranspiration than in precipitation. This extra soil drying is projected to amplify the frequency and intensity of summer heatwaves. Most feedbacks operate locally, except for a notable teleconnection where extra moisture transpired over Europe is transported to central Siberia. Model results illustrate that this teleconnection offsets Siberian soil moisture losses from local spring greening. Our results highlight that climate change adaptation planning must account for the extra summer water and heatwave stress inherited from warming-induced earlier greening.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1126/sciadv.aax0255
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Hydro-climate Risks (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	2375-2548
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
NORA Subject Terms:	Agriculture and Soil Science
Date made live:	30 Jan 2020 16:24 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526683

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1126/sciadv.aax0255

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Hydro-climate Risks (Science Area 2017-)

ISSN:

2375-2548

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.

NORA Subject Terms:

Agriculture and Soil Science