Climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over China
The increasing occurrence of flash droughts with rapid onsets poses a great threat to food security and ecosystem productivity. While temporal trends in flash droughts have been extensively studied, the contributions of climate warming, vegetation greening, and the physiological effect of rising CO...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac69fb |
| _version_ | 1797746993388322816 |
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| author | Miao Zhang Xing Yuan Jason A Otkin Peng Ji |
| author_facet | Miao Zhang Xing Yuan Jason A Otkin Peng Ji |
| author_sort | Miao Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The increasing occurrence of flash droughts with rapid onsets poses a great threat to food security and ecosystem productivity. While temporal trends in flash droughts have been extensively studied, the contributions of climate warming, vegetation greening, and the physiological effect of rising CO _2 to trends in flash drought characteristics remain unclear. Here we show there are significant increasing trends in flash drought frequency, duration, and intensity for most of China during 1961–2016. Warmer temperatures and vegetation greening increase evapotranspiration and decrease soil moisture, and explain 89% and 54% of the increasing frequency of flash drought respectively. Rising CO _2 concentrations reduce stomatal conductance, which acts to decelerate the increasing drought frequency trend by 18%, whereas the physiological effects of rising CO _2 on flash drought duration and intensity are smaller. Warming also outweighs vegetation greening for the increasing trends of flash drought duration and intensity over most of China, except North China. Our study highlights the role of climate warming in increasing the risk of flash droughts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:44:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-23e2134acda1481a8527938fdf5704f7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:44:46Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-23e2134acda1481a8527938fdf5704f72023-08-09T15:28:38ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117505404110.1088/1748-9326/ac69fbClimate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over ChinaMiao Zhang0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9714-5932Xing Yuan1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6983-7368Jason A Otkin2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4034-7845Peng Ji3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4390-2114Key Laboratory of Hydrometeorological Disaster Mechanism and Warning of Ministry of Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of China; School of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Hydrometeorological Disaster Mechanism and Warning of Ministry of Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of China; School of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of ChinaCooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison, WI 53706, United States of AmericaKey Laboratory of Hydrometeorological Disaster Mechanism and Warning of Ministry of Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of China; School of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of ChinaThe increasing occurrence of flash droughts with rapid onsets poses a great threat to food security and ecosystem productivity. While temporal trends in flash droughts have been extensively studied, the contributions of climate warming, vegetation greening, and the physiological effect of rising CO _2 to trends in flash drought characteristics remain unclear. Here we show there are significant increasing trends in flash drought frequency, duration, and intensity for most of China during 1961–2016. Warmer temperatures and vegetation greening increase evapotranspiration and decrease soil moisture, and explain 89% and 54% of the increasing frequency of flash drought respectively. Rising CO _2 concentrations reduce stomatal conductance, which acts to decelerate the increasing drought frequency trend by 18%, whereas the physiological effects of rising CO _2 on flash drought duration and intensity are smaller. Warming also outweighs vegetation greening for the increasing trends of flash drought duration and intensity over most of China, except North China. Our study highlights the role of climate warming in increasing the risk of flash droughts.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac69fbflash droughtglobal warmingland cover changetrendattribution |
| spellingShingle | Miao Zhang Xing Yuan Jason A Otkin Peng Ji Climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over China Environmental Research Letters flash drought global warming land cover change trend attribution |
| title | Climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over China |
| title_full | Climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over China |
| title_fullStr | Climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over China |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over China |
| title_short | Climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over China |
| title_sort | climate warming outweighs vegetation greening in intensifying flash droughts over china |
| topic | flash drought global warming land cover change trend attribution |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac69fb |
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