Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 11, 2025
05:58
Author Spotlight: Advancing Coral Culture - Creating a Semi-Quantitatively Controlled Microenvironment System to Counter Current Limitations
Published on: July 21, 2023
2.3K
Decline in terrestrial water recharge with increasing global temperatures
Chandan Banerjee1, Ashish Sharma2, Nagesh Kumar D3
1Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560012, India; Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560012, India.
The Science of the Total Environment
|March 24, 2021
Summary
Rising global temperatures decrease water recharge in most major river basins worldwide. This global water balance shift, driven by increased evapotranspiration, also impacts vegetation growth.
Area of Science:
- Hydrology
- Climate Science
- Environmental Science
Background:
- Global temperatures have risen by 0.89°C since 1901, altering precipitation patterns and river flow peaks.
- Assessments of global water balance changes due to rising temperatures are limited.
- Investigating the impact of temperature on water recharge is crucial for understanding future water availability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of rising temperatures on water recharge in 31 major global river basins.
- To quantify the relationship between temperature and Terrestrial Water Recharge (TWR).
- To assess the subsequent impact of altered water recharge on vegetation growth.
Main Methods:
- Utilized satellite-derived terrestrial water storage data.
- Analyzed water recharge in 31 major river basins worldwide.
- Assessed the statistical significance of observed changes in recharge.
Main Results:
- Reduced Relative Recharge (indicative of TWR) was observed with increasing temperatures in 23 out of 31 basins.
- Twelve basins showed statistically significant reductions in TWR at a 90% confidence level.
- Reductions in TWR were associated with diminished vegetation growth in most analyzed basins.
Conclusions:
- Increasing temperatures negatively impact water recharge, primarily due to increased evapotranspiration and reduced snow accumulation.
- Future warming may lead to diminished water recharge, even with unchanged precipitation, with further reductions expected if precipitation also decreases.
- Altered terrestrial water recharge significantly influences vegetation growth, highlighting the interconnectedness of climate, water resources, and ecosystems.
Related Concept Videos
01:50Global Climate Change
27.8K
Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global temperatures is well outside of the Earth’s cyclic norms, and evidence for human-caused global climate change is compelling. Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate conditions, provides ample evidence for human-caused global climate change by comparing recent conditions with those in the past.
27.8K
01:00The Water Cycle
27.5K
The Earth’s hydrosphere includes all of the areas where the storage and movement of water occurs. Since water is the basis of all living processes, the cycling of water is extremely important to ecosystem dynamics.
27.5K
01:57Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss
27.1K
Though evaporation from plant leaves drives transpiration, it also results in loss of water. Because water is critical for photosynthetic reactions and other cellular processes, evolutionary pressures on plants in different environments have driven the acquisition of adaptations that reduce water loss.
27.1K
02:41Responses to Drought and Flooding
11.4K
Water plays a significant role in the life cycle of plants. However, insufficient or excess of water can be detrimental and pose a serious threat to plants.
11.4K
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
25.4K
There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
25.4K
01:17Radiation: Applications
1.4K
The average temperature of Earth is the subject of much current discussion. Earth is in radiative contact with both the Sun and dark space; it receives almost all its energy from the radiation of the Sun and reflects some of it into outer space. Dark space is very cold, about 3 K, so Earth radiates energy into it. For instance, heat transfer occurs from soil and grasses, the rate of which can be so rapid that frost can occur on clear summer evenings, even in warm latitudes.
The average...
The average...
1.4K