Soil-vegetation moisture capacitor maintains dry season vegetation productivity over India.

ABSTRACT: India receives more than 70% of its annual rainfall in the summer monsoon from June to September. The rainfall is scanty and scattered for the rest of the year. Combining satellite data and model simulations, we show that the soil-vegetation continuum works as a natural capacitor of water, storing the monsoon pulse and releasing the moisture to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration over approximately 135 days when the moisture supply from precipitation is less than the evapotranspiration losses. The total Gross Primary Productivity of vegetation in India during the capacitor period accounts for almost 35% of the total annual GPP value. It primarily depends on the soil moisture at the beginning of the period, a measure of moisture capacitance of soil, with a correlation of 0.6. Given th

SUBMITTER: Sebastian DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9845320 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature