TY - JOUR
T1 - Divergent Causes of Terrestrial Water Storage Decline Between Drylands and Humid Regions Globally
AU - An, Linli
AU - Wang, Jida
AU - Huang, Jianping
AU - Pokhrel, Yadu
AU - Hugonnet, Romain
AU - Wada, Yoshihide
AU - Cáceres, Denise
AU - Müller Schmied, Hannes
AU - Song, Chunqiao
AU - Berthier, Etienne
AU - Yu, Haipeng
AU - Zhang, Guolong
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was jointly supported by the National Science Foundation of China (41991231, 42041004, and 91937302) and the China University Research Talents Recruitment Program (111 project, No. B13045). The authors acknowledge the ISIMIP project for providing the sectoral human water use datasets. R. Hugonnet acknowledges a fellowship from the University of Toulouse. E. Berthier acknowledges support from the French Space Agency (CNES). The authors thank Fanny Brun (Université Grenoble Alpes) for helping acquire glacier mass change data. The authors thank Taoyong Jin and Xiaolong Li (Wuhan University) for helping calculate the glacier mass change rates from GRACE products. The authors are also grateful for Dr. Robert G. Bryant (University of Sheffield) and another anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments and suggestions, which significantly improved the paper.
Funding Information:
This work was jointly supported by the National Science Foundation of China (41991231, 42041004, and 91937302) and the China University Research Talents Recruitment Program (111 project, No. B13045). The authors acknowledge the ISIMIP project for providing the sectoral human water use datasets. R. Hugonnet acknowledges a fellowship from the University of Toulouse. E. Berthier acknowledges support from the French Space Agency (CNES). The authors thank Fanny Brun (Université Grenoble Alpes) for helping acquire glacier mass change data. The authors thank Taoyong Jin and Xiaolong Li (Wuhan University) for helping calculate the glacier mass change rates from GRACE products. The authors are also grateful for Dr. Robert G. Bryant (University of Sheffield) and another anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments and suggestions, which significantly improved the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021/12/16
Y1 - 2021/12/16
N2 - Declines in terrestrial water storage (TWS) exacerbate regional water scarcity and global sea level rise. Increasing evidence has shown that recent TWS declines are substantial in ecologically fragile drylands, but the mechanism remains unclear. Here, by synergizing satellite observations and model simulations, we quantitatively attribute TWS trends during 2002–2016 in major climate zones to three mechanistic drivers: climate variability, climate change, and direct human activities. We reveal that climate variability had transitory and limited impacts (<20%), whereas warming-induced glacier loss and direct human activities dominate the TWS loss in humid regions (∼103%) and drylands (∼64%), respectively. In non-glacierized humid areas, climate variability generated regional water gains that offset synchronous TWS declines. Yet in drylands, TWS losses are enduring and more widespread with direct human activities, particularly unsustainable groundwater abstraction. Our findings highlight the substantive human footprints on the already vulnerable arid regions and an imperative need for improved dryland water conservation.
AB - Declines in terrestrial water storage (TWS) exacerbate regional water scarcity and global sea level rise. Increasing evidence has shown that recent TWS declines are substantial in ecologically fragile drylands, but the mechanism remains unclear. Here, by synergizing satellite observations and model simulations, we quantitatively attribute TWS trends during 2002–2016 in major climate zones to three mechanistic drivers: climate variability, climate change, and direct human activities. We reveal that climate variability had transitory and limited impacts (<20%), whereas warming-induced glacier loss and direct human activities dominate the TWS loss in humid regions (∼103%) and drylands (∼64%), respectively. In non-glacierized humid areas, climate variability generated regional water gains that offset synchronous TWS declines. Yet in drylands, TWS losses are enduring and more widespread with direct human activities, particularly unsustainable groundwater abstraction. Our findings highlight the substantive human footprints on the already vulnerable arid regions and an imperative need for improved dryland water conservation.
KW - climate change
KW - climate variability
KW - direct human activities
KW - global drylands
KW - quantitative attribution
KW - terrestrial water storage
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U2 - 10.1029/2021GL095035
DO - 10.1029/2021GL095035
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121043467
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 48
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 23
M1 - e2021GL095035
ER -