Land–atmosphere feedbacks exacerbate concurrent soil drought and atmospheric aridity

Compound extremes such as cooccurring soil drought (low soil moisture) and atmospheric aridity (high vapor pressure deficit) can be disastrous for natural and societal systems. Soil drought and atmospheric aridity are 2 main physiological stressors driving widespread vegetation mortality and reduced...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 116; no. 38; pp. 18848 - 18853
Main Authors Zhou, Sha, Williams, A. Park, Berg, Alexis M., Cook, Benjamin I., Zhang, Yao, Hagemann, Stefan, Lorenz, Ruth, Seneviratne, Sonia I., Gentine, Pierre
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Goddard Space Flight Center National Academy of Sciences 17.09.2019
Subjects
Aridity
Atmosphere
Atmosphere - chemistry
Atmospheric models
Climate Change
Climate models
compound extreme events
Coupling
Drought
Droughts
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Feedback
Geographic Mapping
Geophysics
GLACE-CMIP5
Humidity
Models, Theoretical
Physical Sciences
Precipitation
Pressure
Soil - chemistry
Soil moisture
Soils
Stress (physiology)
Vapor pressure
vapor pressure deficit
Vapors
Weather
Vapor Pressure Deficit
Compound Extreme Events
Glace-Cmip5
GLACE-CMIP5
soil moisture
compound extreme events
vapor pressure deficit
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Summary:Compound extremes such as cooccurring soil drought (low soil moisture) and atmospheric aridity (high vapor pressure deficit) can be disastrous for natural and societal systems. Soil drought and atmospheric aridity are 2 main physiological stressors driving widespread vegetation mortality and reduced terrestrial carbon uptake. Here, we empirically demonstrate that strong negative coupling between soil moisture and vapor pressure deficit occurs globally, indicating high probability of cooccurring soil drought and atmospheric aridity. Using the Global Land Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE)-CMIP5 experiment, we further show that concurrent soil drought and atmospheric aridity are greatly exacerbated by land–atmosphere feedbacks. The feedback of soil drought on the atmosphere is largely responsible for enabling atmospheric aridity extremes. In addition, the soil moisture–precipitation feedback acts to amplify precipitation and soil moisture deficits in most regions. CMIP5 models further show that the frequency of concurrent soil drought and atmospheric aridity enhanced by land–atmosphere feedbacks is projected to increase in the 21st century. Importantly, land–atmosphere feedbacks will greatly increase the intensity of both soil drought and atmospheric aridity beyond that expected from changes in mean climate alone.
Bibliography:GSFC
GSFC-E-DAA-TN72966
ISSN: 0027-8424
Report Number: GSFC-E-DAA-TN72966
Goddard Space Flight Center
E-ISSN: 1091-6490
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
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USDOE
AC02-05CH11231
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Edited by Paul A. Dirmeyer, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, and accepted by Editorial Board Member Robert E. Dickinson July 30, 2019 (received for review March 22, 2019)
Author contributions: S.Z. designed research; S.Z., A.P.W., A.M.B., B.I.C., Y.Z., S.H., R.L., S.I.S., and P.G. performed research; S.Z. and Y.Z. analyzed data; A.P.W., A.M.B., B.I.C., Y.Z., S.H., R.L., S.I.S., and P.G. edited the paper; and S.Z. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1904955116