Decoupling vegetation and soil-moisture interaction in evapotranspiration interannual variability.

ABSTRACT: Evapotranspiration (ET) shapes climatic variability through the land-atmosphere coupling (LAC). While the relationship between soil moisture and ET is intuitive, the dynamical interaction among vegetation, soil moisture, and ET in LAC is understudied. Here we disentangle soil moisture and the vegetation influence on ET interannual variability using the Community Earth System Model. Globally, 55.7% of the land shows high soil moisture and vegetation coupling with ET. Soil moisture-ET coupling predominates in low-latitude LAC hotspots, while vegetation-ET coupling dominates in arid areas and high latitudes where shrubs and grasses prevail. In high-temperature and low-precipitation areas, soil evaporation induces an ET variability of 0.072 mm day^-1, whereas transpiration exerts str

SUBMITTER: Huang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12309965 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature