Forests buffer against variations in precipitation.

ABSTRACT: Atmospheric moisture recycling effectively increases the amount of usable water over land as the water can undergo multiple precipitation-evapotranspiration cycles. Differences in land cover and climate regulate the evapotranspiration flux. Forests can have deep roots that access groundwater facilitating transpiration throughout the dry season independent of precipitation. This stable transpiration buffers the forest against precipitation variability. However, it is not known whether the buffering effect, already modeled for tropical forests, is common to all forests globally. Here we apply a state-of-the-art Lagrangian moisture tracking model (UTrack) to study whether forest land cover in the upwind precipitationshed can lead to a reduction in monthly precipitation variability downwind. W

SUBMITTER: O'Connor JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8457185 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature