Widespread decline in terrestrial water storage and its link to teleconnections across Asia and eastern Europe

• Published in: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
• Main Authors: Liu, Xianfeng, Feng, Xiaoming, Ciais, Philippe, Fu, Bojie
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program): 2017YFA0604700 Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities: GK202003068, GK201901009 China Postdoctoral Science Foundation: 2019M650859, 2019T120142 41722104, 41801333, 41991230 Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS: QYZDY-SSW-DQC025, Financial support. This work was sponsored by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0604700), the National Natural Science Foundation (grant nos. 41991230, 41722104 and 41801333), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDY-SSW-DQC025), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M650859 and 2019T120142), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (GK201901009, GK202003068).
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: envir; geo; Arctic; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3663-2020; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02927371/file/hess-24-3663-2020.pdf; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02927371

International audience Recent global changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) and associated freshwater availability raise major concerns about the sustainability of global water resources. However, our knowledge regarding the long-term trends in TWS and its components is still not well documented. In this study, we characterize the spatiotemporal variations in TWS and its components over the Asian and eastern European regions from April 2002 to June 2017 based on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite observations, land surface model simulations, and precipitation observations. The connections of TWS and global major teleconnections (TCs) are also discussed. The results indicate a widespread decline in TWS during 2002-2017, and five hotspots of TWS negative trends were identified with trends between 8:94 and 21:79mmyr1. TWS partitioning suggests that these negative trends are primarily attributed to the intensive over-extraction of groundwater and warmthinduced surface water loss, but the contributions of each hydrological component vary among hotspots. The results also indicate that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation are the three largest dominant factors controlling the variations in TWS through the covariability effect on climate variables. However, seasonal results suggest a divergent response of hydrological components to TCs among seasons and hotspots. Our findings provide insights into changes in TWS and its components over the Asian and eastern European regions, where there is a growing demand for food grains and water supplies.