Identification

Title

The contribution of local and remote transpiration, ground evaporation, and canopy evaporation to precipitation across North America

Abstract

Land surface evapotranspiration (ET) is a major source of moisture for the global hydrologic cycle. Though the influence of the land surface is well documented, moisture tracking analyses aimed at quantifying the contribution of the land surface to precipitation have often relied on offline tracking approaches that require simplifying assumptions and can bias results. Additionally, the contribution of the ET components (transpiration (T), canopy evaporation (C), and ground evaporation (E)) individually to precipitation is not well understood, inhibiting our understanding of moisture teleconnections in both the current and future climate. Here, we use the Community Earth System Model version 1.2 with online numerical water tracers to examine the contribution of local and remote land surface ET, including the contribution from each individual ET component, to precipitation across North America. Much of northern and northeastern North America receives up to 80% of summertime precipitation from land surface ET, and over 50% of that moisture originates from transpiration alone. Local moisture recycling constitutes an essential source of precipitation across much of the southern and western regions of North America, suggesting precipitation across the region is sensitive to local land surface conditions, including soil moisture and vegetation state. The reliance on locally recycled moisture is far less pronounced across northern and eastern North America, where remotely sourced moisture, particularly from transpiration, dominates precipitation contributions. The results highlight regions that are especially sensitive to land cover and hydrologic changes in local and upwind areas, providing key insights for drought prediction and water resource management.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7cf9v2p

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-04-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact