Vegetation forcing modulates global land monsoon and water resources in a CO2-enriched climate

Cui, J., Piao, S., Huntingford, C., Wang, X., Lian, X., Chevuturi, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2815-7221, Turner, A. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0642-6876 and Kooperman, G. J. (2020) Vegetation forcing modulates global land monsoon and water resources in a CO2-enriched climate. Nature Communications, 11. 5184. ISSN 2041-1723 doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18992-7

Abstract/Summary

The global monsoon is characterised by transitions between pronounced dry and wet seasons, affecting food security for two-thirds of the world’s population. Rising atmospheric CO2 influences the terrestrial hydrological cycle through climate-radiative and vegetation-physiological forcings. How these two forcings affect the seasonal intensity and characteristics of monsoonal precipitation and runoff is poorly understood. Here we use four Earth System Models to show that in a CO2-enriched climate, radiative forcing changes drive annual precipitation increases for most monsoon regions. Further, vegetation feedbacks substantially affect annual precipitation in North and South America and Australia monsoon regions. In the dry season, runoff increases over most monsoon regions, due to stomatal closure-driven evapotranspiration reductions and associated atmospheric circulation change. Our results imply that flood risks may amplify in the wet season. However, the lengthening of the monsoon rainfall season and reduced evapotranspiration will shorten the water resources scarcity period for most monsoon regions.