Dryland self-expansion enabled by land–atmosphere feedbacks

Akash Koppa*, Jessica Keune, Dominik Schumacher, Katerina Michaelides, Michael Singer, Sonia Seneviratne, Diego Miralles

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalLetter (Academic Journal)peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
21 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Dryland expansion causes widespread water scarcity and biodiversity loss. Although the drying influence of global warming is well established, the role of existing drylands in their own expansion is relatively unknown. In this work, by tracking the air flowing over drylands, we show that the warming and drying of that air contributes to dryland expansion in the downwind direction. As they dry, drylands contribute less moisture and more heat to downwind humid regions, reducing precipitation and increasing atmospheric water demand, which ultimately causes their aridification. In ~40% of the land area that recently transitioned from a humid region into a dryland, self-expansion accounted for >50% of the observed aridification. Our results corroborate the urgent need for climate change mitigation measures in drylands to decelerate their own expansion.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)967–972
Number of pages6
JournalScience
Volume385
Issue number6712
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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