Abstract
The vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is an important variable used to characterize atmospheric aridity. This paper analyses the spatial and temporal characteristics of the decadal abrupt change (DAC) in the global land VPD after 1980 using monthly scale data from the Climatic Research Unit. The results show that 60.5% of the global land area underwent a significantly increased decadal abrupt change (IDAC) in the VPD, and the persistent IDAC of the VPD was obvious in the middle and low latitudes of Eurasia, Africa and parts of South America but not in central North America or Western Siberia. From 1980 to 2020, most regions experienced no more than two persistent IDACs, while more than two significant increases occurred mainly around the Mediterranean and in eastern South America. The persistent IDAC occurred relatively early in the middle and low latitudes of Eurasia, Africa, and eastern South America and after 2000 in the high latitude regions, Eastern Europe, and near the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The regions where the persistent IDAC lasted longer than 10 years mainly included North Africa, West Asia, eastern South America, and parts of East Asia, indicating that the persistent increases in atmospheric aridity in these regions were obvious. In general, the persistent IDAC that began in 1993–2000 was significantly more than that occurred in other periods and lasted longer than that before 1990, suggesting that the land area experiencing an abrupt increase has an expansion after the 1990s and that the role of water limitation in this persistent IDAC in Central Asia and most of China strengthened. In addition, the VPD showed another large-scale persistent IDAC over the global land region in 2009, indicating that global atmospheric aridity intensified over the last decade. At the same time, in a few global regions, the VPD has exhibited decreased decadal abrupt changes (DDACs) with durations shorter than 2 years.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Allen R G, Pereira L S, Raes D, Smith M. 1998. Crop evapotranspiration—Guidelines for computing crop water requirements—FAO Irrigation and drainage paper 56. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Barkhordarian A, Bowman K W, Cressie N, Jewell J, Liu J. 2021. Emergent constraints on tropical atmospheric aridity-carbon feedbacks and the future of carbon sequestration. Environ Res Lett, 16: 114008
Barkhordarian A, Saatchi S S, Behrangi A, Loikith P C, Mechoso C R. 2019. A recent systematic increase in vapor pressure deficit over tropical South America. Sci Rep, 9: 15331
Berg A, McColl K A. 2021. No projected global drylands expansion under greenhouse warming. Nat Clim Chang, 11: 331–337
Denissen J M C, Teuling A J, Pitman A J, Koirala S, Migliavacca M, Li W, Reichstein M, Winkler A J, Zhan C, Orth R. 2022. Widespread shift from ecosystem energy to water limitation with climate change. Nat Clim Chang, 12: 677–684
Ficklin D L, Novick K A. 2017. Historic and projected changes in vapor pressure deficit suggest a continental-scale drying of the United States atmosphere. J Geophys Res-Atmos, 122: 2061–2079
Friedlingstein P, Jones M W, O’Sullivan M, Andrew R M, Bakker D C E, Hauck J, Le Quéré C, Peters G P, Peters W, Pongratz J, Sitch S, Canadell J G, Ciais P, Jackson R B, Alin S R, Anthoni P, Bates N R, Becker M, Bellouin N, Bopp L, Chau T T T, Chevallier F, Chini L P, Cronin M, Currie K I, Decharme B, Djeutchouang L M, Dou X, Evans W, Feely R A, Feng L, Gasser T, Gilfillan D, Gkritzalis T, Grassi G, Gregor L, Gruber N, Gürses Ö, Harris I, Houghton R A, Hurtt G C, Iida Y, Ilyina T, Luijkx I T, Jain A, Jones S D, Kato E, Kennedy D, Klein Goldewijk K, Knauer J, Korsbakken J I, Körtzinger A, Landschützer P, Lauvset S K, Lefèvre N, Lienert S, Liu J, Marland G, McGuire P C, Melton J R, Munro D R, Nabel J E M S, Nakaoka S I, Niwa Y, Ono T, Pierrot D, Poulter B, Rehder G, Resplandy L, Robertson E, Rödenbeck C, Rosan T M, Schwinger J, Schwingshackl C, Séférian R, Sutton A J, Sweeney C, Tanhua T, Tans P P, Tian H, Tilbrook B, Tubiello F, van der Werf G R, Vuichard N, Wada C, Wanninkhof R, Watson A J, Willis D, Wiltshire A J, Yuan W, Yue C, Yue X, Zaehle S, Zeng J. 2022. Global carbon budget 2021. Earth Syst Sci Data, 14: 1917–2005
Fu C B, Wang Q. 1992. The definition and detection of the abrupt climatic change (in Chinese). Chin J Atmos Sci, 16: 482–493
Fu Q, Feng S. 2014. Responses of terrestrial aridity to global warming. J Geophys Res-Atmos, 119: 7863–7875
Green J K, Berry J, Ciais P, Zhang Y, Gentine P. 2020. Amazon rainforest photosynthesis increases in response to atmospheric dryness. Sci Adv, 6: eabb7232
Grossiord C, Buckley T N, Cernusak L A, Novick K A, Poulter B, Siegwolf R T W, Sperry J S, McDowell N G. 2020. Plant responses to rising vapor pressure deficit. New Phytol, 226: 1550–1566
Harris I, Osborn T J, Jones P, Lister D. 2020. Version 4 of the CRU TS monthly high-resolution gridded multivariate climate dataset. Sci Data, 7: 109
He B, Chen C, Lin S, Yuan W, Chen H W, Chen D, Zhang Y, Guo L, Zhao X, Liu X, Piao S, Zhong Z, Wang R, Tang R. 2022. Worldwide impacts of atmospheric vapor pressure deficit on the interannual variability of terrestrial carbon sinks. Natl Sci Rev, 9: 8
Huang J Y. 2016. Statistical Analysis and Forecasting Methods in Meteorology (in Chinese). 4th ed. Beijing: China Meteorological Press
Humphrey V, Berg A, Ciais P, Gentine P, Jung M, Reichstein M, Seneviratne S I, Frankenberg C. 2021. Soil moisture-atmosphere feedback dominates land carbon uptake variability. Nature, 592: 65–69
Jung M, Reichstein M, Ciais P, Seneviratne S I, Sheffield J, Goulden M L, Bonan G, Cescatti A, Chen J, de Jeu R, Dolman A J, Eugster W, Gerten D, Gianelle D, Gobron N, Heinke J, Kimball J, Law B E, Montagnani L, Mu Q, Mueller B, Oleson K, Papale D, Richardson A D, Roupsard O, Running S, Tomelleri E, Viovy N, Weber U, Williams C, Wood E, Zaehle S, Zhang K. 2010. Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply. Nature, 467: 951–954
Konapala G, Mishra A K, Wada Y, Mann M E. 2020. Climate change will affect global water availability through compounding changes in seasonal precipitation and evaporation. Nat Commun, 11: 3044
Liu L, Gudmundsson L, Hauser M, Qin D, Li S, Seneviratne S I. 2020. Soil moisture dominates dryness stress on ecosystem production globally. Nat Commun, 11: 4892
Liu Y, Li Z, Chen Y. 2021. Continuous warming shift greening towards browning in the Southeast and Northwest High Mountain Asia. Sci Rep, 11: 17920
Lu H, Qin Z, Lin S, Chen X, Chen B, He B, Wei J, Yuan W. 2022. Large influence of atmospheric vapor pressure deficit on ecosystem production efficiency. Nat Commun, 13: 1653
Novick K A, Ficklin D L, Stoy P C, Williams C A, Bohrer G, Oishi A C, Papuga S A, Blanken P D, Noormets A, Sulman B N, Scott R L, Wang L, Phillips R P. 2016. The increasing importance of atmospheric demand for ecosystem water and carbon fluxes. Nat Clim Change, 6: 1023–1027
Piao S, Wang X, Park T, Chen C, Lian X, He Y, Bjerke J W, Chen A, Ciais P, Tømmervik H, Nemani R R, Myneni R B. 2020. Characteristics, drivers and feedbacks of global greening. Nat Rev Earth Environ, 1: 14–27
Qiao L, Zuo Z, Xiao D. 2022. Evaluation of soil moisture in CMIP6 simulations. J Clim, 35: 779–800
Shi N. 2009. Meteorological Statistics and Forecasting (in Chinese). Beijing: China Meteorological Press
Song Y, Jiao W, Wang J, Wang L. 2022. Increased global vegetation productivity despite rising atmospheric dryness over the last two decades. Earths Future, 10: 16
Stocker T F, Qin D, Plattner G K, Tignor M M B, Allen S K, Boschung J, Nauels A, Xia Y, Bex V, Midgley P M. 2014. Climate Change 2013—The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Toms J D, Lesperance M L. 2003. Piecewise regression: A tool for identifying ecological thresholds. Ecology, 84: 2034–2041
Wang J, Tong J L, Xiao Y Q, Wu X Y, Zhang W Y. 2018. Interdecadal variation characteristics of summer sensible heat flux in typical arid and semi-arid areas of East Asia (in Chinese). Arid Meteor, 36: 203–211
Wei F Y. 2007. Modern Climate Statistical Diagnosis and Prediction Techniques (in Chinese). 2nd ed. Beijing: China Meteorological Press
Williams A P, Allen C D, Macalady A K, Griffin D, Woodhouse C A, Meko D M, Swetnam T W, Rauscher S A, Seager R, Grissino-Mayer H D, Dean J S, Cook E R, Gangodagamage C, Cai M, McDowell N G. 2013. Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality. Nat Clim Change, 3: 292–297
Williams A P, Seager R, Macalady A K, Berkelhammer M, Crimmins M A, Swetnam T W, Trugman A T, Buenning N, Noone D, McDowell N G, Hryniw N, Mora C I, Rahn T. 2015. Correlations between components of the water balance and burned area reveal new insights for predicting forest fire area in the southwest United States. Int J Wildland Fire, 24: 14–26
Xiao D, Li J P. 2007. Main decadal abrupt changes and decadal modes in global sea surface temperature field (in Chinese). Chin J Atmos Sci, 31: 839–854
Yuan R R, Huang X L, Hao L. 2021. Spatiotemporal variation of vapor pressure deficit and impact factors in China in the past 40 years (in Chinese). Climatic Environ Res, 26: 413–424
Yuan W, Zheng Y, Piao S, Ciais P, Lombardozzi D, Wang Y, Ryu Y, Chen G, Dong W, Hu Z, Jain A K, Jiang C, Kato E, Li S, Lienert S, Liu S, Nabel J E M S, Qin Z, Quine T, Sitch S, Smith W K, Wang F, Wu C, Xiao Z, Yang S. 2019. Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit reduces global vegetation growth. Sci Adv, 5: eaax1396
Zeng Z, Piao S, Li L Z X, Zhou L, Ciais P, Wang T, Li Y, Lian X, Wood E F, Friedlingstein P, Mao J, Estes L D, Myneni R B, Peng S, Shi X, Seneviratne S I, Wang Y. 2017. Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades. Nat Clim Change, 7: 432–436
Zhou S, Williams A P, Berg A M, Cook B I, Zhang Y, Hagemann S, Lorenz R, Seneviratne S I, Gentine P. 2019a. Land-atmosphere feedbacks exacerbate concurrent soil drought and atmospheric aridity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 116: 18848–18853
Zhou S, Williams A P, Lintner B R, Berg A M, Zhang Y, Keenan T F, Cook B I, Hagemann S, Seneviratne S I, Gentine P. 2021. Soil moisture-atmosphere feedbacks mitigate declining water availability in drylands. Nat Clim Chang, 11: 38–44
Zhou S, Zhang Y, Park Williams A, Gentine P. 2019b. Projected increases in intensity, frequency, and terrestrial carbon costs of compound drought and aridity events. Sci Adv, 5: eaau5740
Zhu Z, Piao S, Myneni R B, Huang M, Zeng Z, Canadell J G, Ciais P, Sitch S, Friedlingstein P, Arneth A, Cao C, Cheng L, Kato E, Koven C, Li Y, Lian X, Liu Y, Liu R, Mao J, Pan Y, Peng S, Peñuelas J, Poulter B, Pugh T A M, Stocker B D, Viovy N, Wang X, Wang Y, Xiao Z, Yang H, Zaehle S, Zeng N. 2016. Greening of the Earth and its drivers. Nat Clim Change, 6: 791–795
Zuo Z, Xiao D, He Q. 2021. Role of the warming trend in global land surface air temperature variations. Sci China Earth Sci, 64: 866–871
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFF0801703) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42175053 & 41822503).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cheng, M., Zuo, Z., Lin, Z. et al. The decadal abrupt change in the global land vapor pressure deficit. Sci. China Earth Sci. 66, 1521–1534 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1117-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1117-x