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Land surface processes are the dominant driver of global runoff increase

Nature Climate Change volume 13, pages 426–427 (2023)Cite this article

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Global runoff increases with carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration because of the synergistic effects of physiological responses to CO2 and the responses of vegetation and soil moisture to CO2-induced climate change. These land surface changes are far more important than the direct effects of climate change on global runoff in a CO2-warmed world.

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Fig. 1: Integration and reconciliation of the top-down and bottom-up approaches.

References

  1. Yang, Y., Roderick, M. L., Zhang, S., McVicar, T. R. & Donohue, R. J. Hydrologic implications of vegetation response to elevated CO2 in climate projections. Nat. Clim. Change 9, 44–48 (2019). This paper shows that the projected increase in global runoff is mainly caused by vegetation responses to elevated CO2 based on the Budyko framework.

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This is a summary of: Zhou, S. et al. Projected increase in global runoff dominated by land surface changes. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01659-8 (2023).

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Land surface processes are the dominant driver of global runoff increase. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 426–427 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01666-9

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