Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2025
10:28
Investigating the Relationship between Sea Surface Chlorophyll and Major Features of the South China Sea with Satellite Information
Published on: June 13, 2020
5.9K
Southern Hemisphere dominates recent decline in global water availability.
Yongqiang Zhang1, Congcong Li2,3, Francis H S Chiew3
1Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|November 2, 2023
Summary
Global water availability is declining, primarily in the Southern Hemisphere due to climate patterns like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. This trend impacts regions like South America, Africa, and Australia.
Area of Science:
- Hydrology
- Climate Science
- Environmental Science
Background:
- Global land water is crucial for human societies and ecosystems.
- Recent decades have seen unclear changes in global water availability.
- Understanding these changes is vital for resource management and climate adaptation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify global land water availability changes over the past two decades (2001-2020).
- To identify the dominant regions and drivers of these changes.
- To assess the role of climate modes in water availability trends.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an ensemble of observational data.
- Analyzed trends in land water availability from 2001 to 2020.
- Investigated the influence of climate modes, specifically the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
Main Results:
- The Southern Hemisphere shows a significant declining trend in water availability from 2001 to 2020.
- Key areas of decrease include South America, southwestern Africa, and northwestern Australia.
- The Northern Hemisphere exhibits regional variations that largely cancel out, resulting in a negligible trend.
- Precipitation patterns linked to climate modes, especially ENSO, drive Southern Hemisphere water variability and trends.
Conclusions:
- The Southern Hemisphere plays a dominant role in the recent decline of global water availability.
- Climate modes, particularly ENSO, are major drivers of water availability changes.
- Findings underscore the interconnectedness of climate variability and terrestrial water resources.
Related Concept Videos
01:00The Water Cycle
24.5K
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.
24.5K
01:50Global Climate Change
24.4K
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.
24.4K
01:16What is Climate?
18.6K
Climate refers to the prevailing weather conditions in a specific area over an extended period. As the saying goes, “Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.” Climate is influenced by geographic factors, such as latitude, terrain, and proximity to bodies of water.
18.6K
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
22.4K
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...
22.4K
02:41Responses to Drought and Flooding
10.7K
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.
10.7K
01:57Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss
25.6K
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.
25.6K