The impact of global land-cover change on the terrestrial water cycle

Human induced changes on the terrestrial water cycle:

Geographic modelling reveals that land-cover change reduces annual total evapotranspiration by approximately 3,500 km3/yr (5%) and that the largest changes in evapotranspiration are associated with wetlands and reservoirs. Land surface model simulations support these evapotranspiration changes, and project increased runoff (7.6%) as a result of land-cover changes. […] The results demonstrate that land-cover change alters annual global runoff to a similar or greater extent than other major drivers, affirming the important role of land-cover change in the Earth System.

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