Human modification of global water vapor flows from the land surface, Gordon 2005

Compendium Volume 2 Number 1 July 2018

Human modification of the hydrological cycle has profoundly affected the flow of liquid water across the Earth’s land surface. Compared to changes to liquid water flow, alteration of water vapor flows through land-use changes has received comparatively less attention, despite compelling evidence that such alteration can influence the functioning of the Earth System.

We show that deforestation is as large a driving force as irrigation in terms of changes in the hydrological cycle. Deforestation has decreased global vapor flows from land by 4% (3,000 km3/yr), a decrease that is quantitatively as large as the increased vapor flow caused by irrigation (2,600 km3/yr). Although the net change in global vapor flows is close to zero, the spatial distributions of deforestation and irrigation are different, leading to major regional transformations of vapor-flow patterns [Gordon 2015: 7612].

Gordon, Line J., et al., 2005, Human modification of global water vapor flows from the land surface, PNAS 102:21, http://www.pnas.org/content/102/21/7612

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