Root zone soil moisture in over 25&thinsp;% of global land permanently beyond pre-industrial variability as early as 2050 without climate policy

Lai, En Ning; Wang-Erlandsson, Lan; Virkki, Vili; Porkka, Miina; van der Ent, Ruud J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3999-2023

Articles | Volume 27, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3999-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3999-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 27, issue 21

Research article

|

09 Nov 2023

Research article |

| 09 Nov 2023

Root zone soil moisture in over 25 % of global land permanently beyond pre-industrial variability as early as 2050 without climate policy

En Ning Lai, Lan Wang-Erlandsson, Vili Virkki, Miina Porkka, and Ruud J. van der Ent

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3999-2023-supplement

Data sets

Python script to download CMIP6 data from Pangeo Gallery (1.0) S. Koirala https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5900393

Model code and software

Variability of rootzone soil moisture from the pre-industrial baseline En Ning Lai https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8166198

Python for Atmosphere and Ocean Scientists D. Irving https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2546005

SantanderMetGroup/ATLAS GitHub (Version v1.6) M. Iturbide, J. M. Gutiérrez, E. Cimadevilla, J. Bedia, M. Hauser, and R. Manzanas https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3998463

Short summary

This research scrutinized predicted changes in root zone soil moisture dynamics across different climate scenarios and different climate regions globally between 2021 and 2100. The Mediterranean and most of South America stood out as regions that will likely experience permanently drier conditions, with greater severity observed in the no-climate-policy scenarios. These findings underscore the impact that possible future climates can have on green water resources.