Abstract
Soil water shortage is a critical issue for the Southwest US (SWUS), the typical arid region that has experienced severe droughts over the past decades, primarily caused by climate change. However, it is still not quantitatively understood how soil water storage in the SWUS is affected by climate change. We integrated the time-series data of water storage and evapotranspiration derived from satellite data, societal water consumption, and meteorological data to quantify soil water storage changes and their climate change impacts across the SWUS from 2003 to 2014. The water storage decline was found across the entire SWUS, with a significant reduction in 98.5% of the study area during the study period. The largest water storage decline occurred in the southeastern portion, while only a slight decline occurred in the western and southwestern portions of the SWUS. Net atmospheric water input could explain 38% of the interannual variation of water storage variation. The climate-change-induced decreases in net atmospheric water input predominately controlled the water storage decline in 60% of the SWUS (primarily in Texas, Eastern New Mexico, Eastern Arizona, and Oklahoma) and made a partial contribution in approximately 17% of the region (Central and Western SWUS). Climate change, primarily as precipitation reduction, made major contributions to the soil water storage decline in the SWUS. This study infers that water resource management must consider the climate change impacts over time and across space in the SWUS.
Highlights
Water is the most important life-supporting element on the planet [1]
The water storage in soil prolife is one fundamental resource for natural ecosystems and human society; understanding soil water storage variation and its controlling factors is essential for sustaining human society, which relies on water resources [2]
Given the severe droughts, decreasing water storage, and projected changing climate, it is expected that the extreme rainfall events will have significant impacts on both ecosystems and the human community in the Southwest United States (SWUS)
Summary
Water is the most important life-supporting element on the planet [1]. The water storage in soil prolife is one fundamental resource for natural ecosystems and human society; understanding soil water storage variation and its controlling factors is essential for sustaining human society, which relies on water resources [2]. It was confirmed that a significant alteration in global water storage has occurred [3], and it has yielded dramatic impacts on natural ecosystems and human society [4,5,6,7]. The water resource dynamic and its impacts are intensively studied on a global scale [8,9], the regional-scale water resource variations and their controlling factors remain uncertain [10], for the arid and semiarid regions that are experiencing water shortage and strong variations [11]. For arid or semiarid regions, water is a primary limiting resource for natural ecosystems, as well as for human society [3]. The water availability is a critical issue for the sustainability of
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