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Updated: Jun 30, 2025

In Situ Soil Moisture Sensors in Undisturbed Soils
Published on: November 18, 2022
Importance of soil moisture conservation in mitigating climate change
Zhiyan Zuo1, Liang Qiao2, Renhe Zhang2
1Key Laboratory of Polar Atmosphere-ocean-ice System for Weather and Climate of Ministry of Education/Shanghai Key Laboratory of Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Boundary Dynamics and Climate Change, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences/Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China; Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
Abstract:
A troubling feedback loop, where drier soil contributes to hotter climates, has been widely recognized. This study, drawing on climate model simulations, reveals that maintaining current global soil moisture levels could significantly alleviate 32.9% of land warming under low-emission scenarios. This action could also postpone reaching critical warming thresholds of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C by at least a decade. Crucially, preserving soil moisture at current levels could prevent noticeable climate change impacts across 42% of the Earth's land, a stark deviation from projections suggesting widespread impacts before the 2060s. To combat soil drying, afforestation in mid-to-low latitude regions within the next three decades is proposed as an effective strategy to increase surface water availability. This underscores the substantial potential of nature-based solutions for managing soil moisture, benefiting both climate change mitigation and ecological enhancement.
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