Journal article
Water resources remain sustainable in global revegetated regions
- Abstract:
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Intense debate surrounds the question of whether transpiration from revegetated regions may exacerbate water shortages globally. Using outputs from 20 CMIP6 models for 1982–2016 and 2030–2100 alongside observations, we find that the water resources remaining after subtracting increased evapotranspiration from rainfall and meltwater from snow and glaciers exceeded human usage during 1982–2016 across almost three quarters (72.2%) of global revegetated regions. CMIP6 projections for 2030–2100 indicate that human water demand is likely to be met in 79.4% of revegetated regions, but India and Oceania warrant attention because of possible precipitation decline and/or population growth. Approximately 1.6% of currently bare regions (40.6 × 104 km2) in Canada, Central Asia, and the fringes of deserts have adequate water for revegetation over 2030–2100. These findings underscore the necessity of strategic water management and monitoring in revegetated areas to balance ecological benefits with human water needs.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 2.0MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1016/j.scib.2025.10.039
Authors
- Funder identifier:
- 10.13039/501100001809
- Grant:
- U24A20572
- Funder identifier:
- 10.13039/501100012166
- Grant:
- 2024YFF0809301
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/027s68j25
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Journal:
- Science Bulletin More from this journal
- Volume:
- 70
- Issue:
- 23
- Pages:
- 4080-4090
- Publication date:
- 2025-10-27
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-09-09
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2095-9281
- ISSN:
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2095-9273
- Pmid:
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41203483
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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2321038
- Local pid:
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pubs:2321038
- Deposit date:
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2026-02-10
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Science China Press
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © 2025 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science China Press. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
- Notes:
- The author accepted manuscript (AAM) of this paper has been made available under the University of Oxford's Open Access Publications Policy, and a CC BY public copyright licence has been applied.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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