Recent changes in global dryland temperature and precipitation

Abstract

Changes in dryland temperature and precipitation are essential components of dryland climate change. This study applies the use of the monthly reanalysis data product of ERA5, which has a spatial resolution of 0.25 , to investigate the changes in the dryland climate between 1979 and 2018. The result revealed warming and drying of the drylands in recent decades, most notably in the current decade. The general global dryland temperature and precipitation increased and decreased significantly (0.01 significance level) at the rate of 0.032 CÁyear −1 and 0.074 mmÁmonth −1 Áyear −1 , respectively, in the last 40 years. Although precipitation generally decreased over the drylands, summer precipitation increased over southern Africa and Australia as well as northern Africa and south Asia dryland areas. Variation in the warming rate over the dryland zones at different periods was also observed. The semiarid and dry subhumid warmed continually from the first decade (0.02 CÁyear −1 and 0.017 CÁyear −1 ) to the fourth decade (0.077 CÁyear −1 and 0.065 CÁyear −1 , respectively), while the hyperarid warmed at a slower rate in the last two decades compared to the prior decades. More intense warming was also observed in the areas where precipitation decreased, suggesting the effect of reduced evaporative cooling. These changes have implications on the dryland environment, such as aridity changes, which could affect the sustainable development of the areas through the corresponding impact on the ecosystem.

Northward Expansion of Desert Climate in Central Asia in Recent Decades

“…The data are from 1950 to the present with a spatial resolution of 0.25° in latitude and longitude (Hersbach et al., 2020). The reanalysis procedure integrated instrumentation observations as well as available satellite data (Calì Quaglia et al., 2021; Daramola & Xu, 2022; Fan et al., 2022; Gleixner et al., 2020; Jiang et al., 2021). Monthly averaged surface air temperature and total precipitation from the data set are used in identifying climate types (Table 1) for our study period from 1960 to 2020.…”

High Mountains Becoming Wetter While Deserts Getting Drier in Xinjiang, China since the 1980s

“…Reanalysis datasets show that the global semi-arid and arid regions show a significant warming and drying trend, but there are obvious regional differences in precipitation changes [6]. Specifically, precipitation in southern Asia, southern Africa, and the northeastern part of the drylands of North America have increased significantly, while precipitation in central North America, southwestern South America, eastern Africa and western Asia have decreased significantly [7][8][9]. Based on the above research, we found that the research on climate change in arid regions is mainly focused on large-scale areas, but there is less attention to climate change in different ecological systems and different altitude gradients in arid regions.…”

Rio (1992) to Glasgow (2021): Three decades of inadequate mitigation of climate change and its slow onset effects

“…A recent assessment of climatic trends across the world's drylands between 1979 and 2018 revealed a general increase in temperatures and decrease in precipitations, with the most notable changes recorded during the last decade. During this entire period, the rate of temperature increase has been 0.032 °C yr −1 , and the rate of precipitation decrease has been 0.074 mm month −1 yr −1 (Daramola and Xu, 2022). Yet, at the regional scale, variations are more dramatic.…”