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photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Zheng Duan

Senior lecturer

photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Higher frequency and duration of droughts demonstrated by the critical threshold of soil moisture in China drylands

Author

  • Yingying Wang
  • Yanlian Zhou
  • Weimin Ju
  • Shang Gao
  • Wei He
  • Yibo Liu
  • Lanhui Wang
  • Zheng Duan

Summary, in English

Quantifying the spatial and temporal patterns of drought characteristics is crucial, given the increasing frequency and intensity of drought events over the past 20 years in China. However, the patterns of drought frequency and duration in different regions and their differences remain unclear. Traditional indices for detecting and quantifying droughts, such as the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), suffer from uncertainties such as the inability to fully capture the complexity and diversity of drought. In this study, we assessed the drought characteristics in different climate regions in China during 2001–2019 using the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) soil moisture data and a critical soil moisture threshold (SMth_crit) derived from the covariance of gross primary production and vapor pressure deficit. Results showed that the SMth_crit in the arid region of China was much smaller than those in the humid region. There were obvious spatial differences in drought frequency and duration between the arid and humid region. Arid region exhibited higher drought frequency and longer drought durations than that in humid regions, which were associated with lower aridity index (AI), precipitation (Pre) and soil moisture (SM) in arid regions. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the spatial distribution characteristics of drought conditions in China's ecosystems using a drought threshold detection method, offering a scientific basis for addressing the challenges posed by global warming and extreme drought events.

Department/s

  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system

Publishing year

2025-12

Language

English

Publication/Series

Journal of Hydrology

Volume

662

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Physical Geography
  • Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources

Keywords

  • Critical threshold
  • Drought detection
  • Drought frequency
  • Soil moisture

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0022-1694