Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-01-earth-reveals-climate-hydrology-grassland.html#google_vignette

Research co-led by the University of Maryland reveals that drought and increased temperatures in a CO2-rich climate can dramatically alter how grasslands use and move water.

The study provides the first experimental demonstration of the potential impacts of climate change on water movement through grassland ecosystems, which make up nearly 40% of Earth’s land area and play a critical role in Earth’s water cycle. The study appears in the journal Science.

“If we want to predict the effects of climate change on Earth’s water resources, we need data showing how the hydrologic cycle will respond at a small scale where we can define mechanisms, but that just hasn’t been available,” said Jesse Radolinski, corresponding author of the study, a post-doctoral research associate in the UMD Department of Environmental Science & Technology who began the work at the University of Innsbruck.