UC Irvine

Soil water storage is a fundamental signal in the land hydrological cycle and changes in soil moisture can affect regional climate. In this study, we used simulations from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 archives to investigate changes in the annual range of soil water storage under global warming at northern middle and high latitudes. Results show that future warming could lead to significant declines in snowfall, and a corresponding lack of snowmelt water recharge to the soil, which makes soil water less available during spring and summer. Conversely, more precipitation as rainfall results in higher recharge to soil water during its accumulating season. Thus, the wettest month of soil water gets wetter, and the driest month gets drier, resulting in an increase of the annual range and suggesting that stronger heterogeneity in global water distribution (changing extremes) could occur under global warming; this has implications for water management and water security under a changing climate.