Large-scale reforestation can increase water yield and reduce drought risk for water-insecure regions in the Asia-Pacific

Teo, Hoong Chen1,2; Raghavan, Srivatsan, V2,3,4; He, Xiaogang2,5; Zeng, Zhenzhong6; Cheng, Yanyan7; Luo, Xiangzhong2,4; Lechner, Alex M.8; Ashfold, Matthew J.9; Lamba, Aakash1,2; Sreekar, Rachakonda1,2; Zheng, Qiming1,2; Chen, Anping10; Koh, Lian Pin1,2,3

2022-09-01

10.1111/gcb.16404

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY   Impact Factor & Quartile

1354-1013

1365-2486

Large-scale reforestation can potentially bring both benefits and risks to the water cycle, which needs to be better quantified under future climates to inform reforestation decisions. We identified 477 water-insecure basins worldwide accounting for 44.6% (380.2 Mha) of the global reforestation potential. As many of these basins are in the Asia-Pacific, we used regional coupled land-climate modeling for the period 2041-2070 to reveal that reforestation increases evapotranspiration and precipitation for most water-insecure regions over the Asia-Pacific. This resulted in a statistically significant increase in water yield (p < .05) for the Loess Plateau-North China Plain, Yangtze Plain, Southeast China, and Irrawaddy regions. Precipitation feedback was influenced by the degree of initial moisture limitation affecting soil moisture response and thus evapotranspiration, as well as precipitation advection from other reforested regions and moisture transport away from the local region. Reforestation also reduces the probability of extremely dry months in most of the water-insecure regions. However, some regions experience nonsignificant declines in net water yield due to heightened evapotranspiration outstripping increases in precipitation, or declines in soil moisture and advected precipitation.

forest-water nexus natural climate solutions nature-based solutions precipitation socio-ecological systems water balance water risk water stress

SCI

English

Others

Ministry of Education Singapore["A-0009297-01-00","A-8000190-00-00","R-109-000-272-133"] ; National Research Foundation Singapore[NRF-RSS2019-007]

Biodiversity & Conservation ; Environmental Sciences & Ecology

Biodiversity Conservation ; Ecology ; Environmental Sciences

WOS:000849695600001

WILEY

ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY

Web of Science

1.Natl Univ Singapore, Dept Biol Sci, Singapore, Singapore
2.Natl Univ Singapore, Ctr Nat Based Climate Solut, Singapore, Singapore
3.Natl Univ Singapore, Trop Marine Sci Inst, Singapore, Singapore
4.Natl Univ Singapore, Dept Geog, Singapore, Singapore
5.Natl Univ Singapore, Dept Civil & Environm Engn, Singapore, Singapore
6.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Environm Sci & Engn, Shenzhen, Peoples R China
7.Natl Univ Singapore, Dept Ind Syst Engn & Management, Singapore, Singapore
8.Monash Univ Indonesia, Urban Transformat Hub, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia
9.Univ Nottingham Malaysia, Sch Environm & Geog Sci, Semenyih, Malaysia
10.Colorado State Univ, Dept Biol, Grad Degree Program Ecol, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA

Teo, Hoong Chen,Raghavan, Srivatsan, V,He, Xiaogang,et al. Large-scale reforestation can increase water yield and reduce drought risk for water-insecure regions in the Asia-Pacific[J]. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY,2022.

Teo, Hoong Chen.,Raghavan, Srivatsan, V.,He, Xiaogang.,Zeng, Zhenzhong.,Cheng, Yanyan.,...&Koh, Lian Pin.(2022).Large-scale reforestation can increase water yield and reduce drought risk for water-insecure regions in the Asia-Pacific.GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY.

Teo, Hoong Chen,et al."Large-scale reforestation can increase water yield and reduce drought risk for water-insecure regions in the Asia-Pacific".GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY (2022).