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Homogenization of the terrestrial water cycle

Nature Geoscience volume 13, pages 656–658 (2020)Cite this article

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Land-use and land-cover changes are accelerating. Such changes can homogenize the water cycle and undermine planetary resilience. Policymakers and practitioners must consider water–vegetation interactions in their land-management decisions.

Hydrological, ecological and human systems are interconnected. Recognizing this, the United Nations declared 2018–2028 as the International Decade for Action on ‘Water for Sustainable Development’. Likewise, the International Association of Hydrological Sciences designated 2013–2022 as the scientific decade of ‘Panta Rhei – Everything Flows’ to foster hydrological research into the human influence on the water cycle1. Yet, policies that alter land use and land cover to increase carbon sequestration and meet food, water and energy demands are altering the water cycle in ways that risk unintended global consequences. There are multi-faceted risks associated with large-scale, human-induced homogenization of land cover, such as the conversion of natural forests to monocultural plantations or crops2. We must quantify how the resulting losses in plant diversity affect the water cycle and, in turn, planetary resilience to global change. We call on natural and social scientists alike to provide the evidence base needed to understand and sustainably manage the consequences of large-scale land-use and land-cover change for the water cycle and preserve the resilience of water-dependent ecosystems and society.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual diagrams showing the differences in the water cycle of natural vegetation and monocultures.
Fig. 2: Forest sustainability potential over time.

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Acknowledgements

This paper stems from the Ettersburg Ecohydrology Workshop (October 2018). Funding was provided by the UNIDEL Foundation, Inc. and the University of Delaware.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Delphis F. Levia, Irena F. Creed.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Delphis F. Levia, Janice E. Hudson & Sean A. Hudson

  2. School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    Irena F. Creed

  3. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    David M. Hannah

  4. Department of Disaster Prevention, Meteorology and Hydrology, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kazuki Nanko & Shin’ichi Iida

  5. Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Elizabeth W. Boyer

  6. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

    Darryl E. Carlyle-Moses

  7. Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

    Nick van de Giesen

  8. Office of the Chancellor, University of Michigan- Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, USA

    Domenico Grasso

  9. Picker Engineering Program, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA

    Andrew J. Guswa

  10. Department of Earth System Science, Woods Institute for the Environment, and Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Robert B. Jackson

  11. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Gabriel G. Katul

  12. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Tomo’omi Kumagai

  13. Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

    Pilar Llorens

  14. Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Flavio Lopes Ribeiro

  15. School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Diane E. Pataki

  16. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Catherine A. Peters

  17. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Daniel Sanchez Carretero

  18. Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    John S. Selker

  19. Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany

    Doerthe Tetzlaff

  20. European Regional Center for Ecohydrology, UNESCO and Department of Applied Ecology, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland

    Maciej Zalewski

  21. UCD School of Civil Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Michael Bruen

Authors
  1. Delphis F. Levia
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  18. Diane E. Pataki
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  20. Daniel Sanchez Carretero
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  21. John S. Selker
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  22. Doerthe Tetzlaff
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  23. Maciej Zalewski
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  24. Michael Bruen
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Correspondence to Delphis F. Levia.

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Levia, D.F., Creed, I.F., Hannah, D.M. et al. Homogenization of the terrestrial water cycle. Nat. Geosci. 13, 656–658 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0641-y

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