Publication Abstracts

Lemordant et al. 2018

Lemordant, L., P. Gentine, A. Swann, B.I. Cook, and J. Scheff, 2018: Critical impact of vegetation physiology on the continental hydrologic cycle in response to increasing CO2. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 115, no. 16, 4093-4098, doi:10.1073/pnas.1720712115.

Predicting how increasing atmospheric CO2 will affect the hydrologic cycle is of utmost importance for a range of applications ranging from ecological services to human life and activities. A typical perspective is that hydrologic change is driven by precipitation and radiation changes due to climate change, and that the land surface will adjust. Using Earth system models with decoupled surface (vegetation physiology) and atmospheric (radiative) CO2 responses, we here show that the CO2 physiological response has a dominant role in evapotranspiration and evaporative fraction changes and has a major effect on long-term runoff compared with radiative or precipitation changes due to increased atmospheric CO2. This major effect is true for most hydrological stress variables over the largest fraction of the globe, except for soil moisture, which exhibits a more nonlinear response. This highlights the key role of vegetation in controlling future terrestrial hydrologic response and emphasizes that the carbon and water cycles are intimately coupled over land.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{le04700w,
  author={Lemordant, L. and Gentine, P. and Swann, A. and Cook, B. I. and Scheff, J.},
  title={Critical impact of vegetation physiology on the continental hydrologic cycle in response to increasing CO2},
  year={2018},
  journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  volume={115},
  number={16},
  pages={4093--4098},
  doi={10.1073/pnas.1720712115},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - le04700w
AU  - Lemordant, L.
AU  - Gentine, P.
AU  - Swann, A.
AU  - Cook, B. I.
AU  - Scheff, J.
PY  - 2018
TI  - Critical impact of vegetation physiology on the continental hydrologic cycle in response to increasing CO2
JA  - Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
VL  - 115
IS  - 16
SP  - 4093
EP  - 4098
DO  - 10.1073/pnas.1720712115
ER  -

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