Publication details
Drivers of soil moisture trends in the Czech Republic between 1961 and 2012
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | GLOBAL CHANGE: A COMPLEX CHALLENGE |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | PERIOD; FLUCTUATIONS; TEMPERATURE |
| Description | Soil moisture dynamics and their temporal trends in the Czech Republic are forced by various drivers. Our analysis of temporal trends indicates that shifts in drought severity between 1961 and 2012 and especially in the April, May, and June period, which displayed such results as a 50% increase in drought probability during 1961-1980 in comparison to 2001-2012. We found that increased global radiation and air temperature together with decreased relative humidity (all statistically significant at p < 0.05) led to increases in the reference evapotranspiration in all months of the growing season; this trend was particularly evident in April, May, and August, when more than 80% of the territory displayed an increased demand for soil water. These changes, in combination with the earlier end of snow cover and the earlier start of the growing season (up to 20 days in some regions), led to increased actual evapotranspiration at the start of the growing season that tended to deplete the soil moisture earlier, leaving the soil more exposed to the impacts of rainfall variability. These results support concerns related to the potentially increased severity of drought events in Central Europe. The reported trend patterns are of particular importance with respect to expected climate change, given the robustness and consistency of the trends shown and the fact that they can be aligned with the existing climate model projections. |