Land-atmosphere feedbacks amplify aridity increase over land under global warming

The response of the terrestrial water cycle to global warming is central to issues including water resources, agriculture and ecosystem health. Recent studies indicate that aridity, defined in terms of atmospheric supply (precipitation, P) and demand (potential evapotranspiration, E p) of water at the land surface, will increase globally in a warmer world. Recently proposed mechanisms for this response emphasize the driving role of oceanic warming and associated atmospheric processes. Here we show that the aridity response is substantially amplified by land-atmosphere feedbacks associated with the land surface's response to climate and CO 2 change. Using simulations from the Global Land Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE)-CMIP5 experiment, we show that global aridity is enhanced by the feedbacks of projected soil moisture decrease on land surface temperature, relative humidity and precipitation. The physiological impact of increasing atmospheric CO 2 on vegetation exerts a qualitatively similar control on aridity. We reconcile these findings with previously proposed mechanisms by showing that the moist enthalpy change over land is unaffected by the land hydrological response. Thus, although oceanic warming constrains the combined moisture and temperature changes over land, land hydrology modulates the partitioning of this enthalpy increase towards increased aridity.

Findell, KirstenGeophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (författare)
Lintner, BenjaminRutgers University: The State University of New Jersey (författare)
Giannini, AlessandraColumbia University (författare)
Seneviratne, Sonia I.ETH Zürich (författare)
Van Den Hurk, BartRoyal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (författare)
Lorenz, RuthUniversity of New South Wales (författare)
Pitman, AndyUniversity of New South Wales (författare)
Hagemann, StefanMax Planck Institute for Meteorology (författare)
Meier, ArndtLund University,Lunds universitet,Centrum för miljö- och klimatvetenskap (CEC),Naturvetenskapliga fakulteten,Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC),Faculty of Science(Swepub:lu)cec-ami (författare)
Cheruy, FrédériqueInstitute Pierre Simon Laplace (författare)
Ducharne, AgnèsInstitute Pierre Simon Laplace (författare)
Malyshev, SergeyPrinceton University,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (författare)
Milly, P. C DUnited States Geological Survey, Reston,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (författare)
Columbia UniversityGeophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (creator_code:org_t)

Ingår i:Nature Climate Change: Springer Science and Business Media LLC6:9, s. 869-8741758-678X1758-6798

Av författaren/redakt...: Berg, Alexis; Findell, Kirsten; Lintner, Benjami ...; Giannini, Alessa ...; Seneviratne, Son ...; Van Den Hurk, Ba ...; visa fler...; Lorenz, Ruth; Pitman, Andy; Hagemann, Stefan; Meier, Arndt; Cheruy, Frédériq ...; Ducharne, Agnès; Malyshev, Sergey; Milly, P. C D; visa färre...

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