Abstract
Soil moisture (SM) plays a critical role in land–atmosphere interaction. Literature shows that the CO2 fertilization effect (CFE) governs vegetation dynamics and its interactions with the atmosphere. However, the impacts of changing vegetation properties due to CFE, on SM, specifically in India, remains unexplored. Comparing Land-hist (observed CO2 concentration) and Land-cCO2 (constant preindustrial CO2 concentration) simulations with the same meteorological forcings from the Land Use Model Inter-comparison Project (LUMIP), we found that changing vegetation due to CFE impacts SM following two pathways. Enhanced water use efficiency (WUE) due to CFE seeks to ameliorate SM by regulating transpiration. Conversely, elevated CO2 increases leaf area index and plant water use, ultimately leading to a decrease in SM due to the combined impacts of CFE in India. This reduction is most prominent in arid regions, where we observe a decline in SM particularly during dry periods. Our study highlights the need to consider plant physiology in land surface modeling under increased CO2 concentration.
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