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HYDROCLIMATE

Plants turn on the tap

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 562–563 (2018)Cite this article

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Plant transpiration is the largest continental water flux. Research now shows that climate and water availability projections are highly sensitive to the ways that plant responses to changing atmospheric conditions are represented.

Plant transpiration vaporizes about half of the rain and snow that falls on land, moving more water than all of the world’s rivers combined1,2. As plants exhale so much water in this way, simulating transpiration is critical for projecting the impacts of climate change. Writing in Nature Climate Change, Lian and colleagues3 demonstrate the importance of transpiration in general circulation models. Their research shows that biosphere responses to changing atmospheric conditions are more important for climate and water availability projections than previously thought.

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Fig. 1: Potential responses of the terrestrial biosphere to higher atmospheric CO2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Scott Jasechko

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  1. Scott Jasechko
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Correspondence to Scott Jasechko.

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Jasechko, S. Plants turn on the tap. Nature Clim Change 8, 562–563 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0212-z

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