We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Recent global decline in rainfall interception loss due to altered rainfall regimes.
- Authors
Lian, Xu; Zhao, Wenli; Gentine, Pierre
- Abstract
Evaporative loss of interception (Ei) is the first process occurring during rainfall, yet its role in large-scale surface water balance has been largely underexplored. Here we show that Ei 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 Ei, 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 Ei changes, and rainfall intensity, rather than vegetation attributes, determines the fraction of Ei in gross precipitation (Ei/P). Rain events have become less frequent and more intense since 2000, driving a global decline in Ei (and Ei/P) by 4.9% (6.7%). This suggests that ongoing rainfall changes favor a partitioning towards more soil moisture and runoff, benefiting ecosystem functions but simultaneously increasing flood risks. Canopy rainfall interception (Ei) is a key component of global water cycle. Here, the authors quantify Ei using flux tower data and machine learning, and find that rainfall gets less partitioned into Ei as it gets more intense and less frequent.
- Subjects
RAINFALL; RAINFALL frequencies; HYDROLOGIC cycle; SOIL moisture; MACHINE learning; RAIN gauges; FLOOD risk
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2022, Vol 13, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-022-35414-y