Recent global decline in rainfall interception loss due to altered rainfall regimes.

ABSTRACT: Evaporative loss of interception (E_i) is the first process occurring during rainfall, yet its role in large-scale surface water balance has been largely underexplored. Here we show that E_i can be inferred from flux tower evapotranspiration measurements using physics-informed hybrid machine learning models built under wet versus dry conditions. Forced by satellite and reanalysis data, this framework provides an observationally constrained estimate of E_i, which is on average 84.1 ± 1.8 mm per year and accounts for 8.6 ± 0.2% of total rainfall globally during 2000-2020. Rainfall frequency regulates long-term average E_i changes, and rainfall intensity, rather than vegetation attributes, determines the fraction of E_i in gross precipitation

SUBMITTER: Lian X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9741630 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature