A planetary boundary for green water

Lan Wang-Erlandsson; Arne Tobian; Ruud J. van der Ent; Ingo Fetzer; Sofie te Wierik; Miina Porkka; Arie Staal; Fernando Jaramillo; Heindriken Dahlmann; Chandrakant Singh; Peter Greve; Dieter Gerten; Patrick W. Keys; Tom Gleeson; Sarah E. Cornell; Will Steffen; Xuemei Bai; Johan Rockström

doi:10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

A planetary boundary for green water

Lan Wang-Erlandsson^*, Arne Tobian, Ruud J. van der Ent, Ingo Fetzer, Sofie te Wierik, Miina Porkka, Arie Staal, Fernando Jaramillo, Heindriken Dahlmann, Chandrakant Singh, Peter Greve, Dieter Gerten, Patrick W. Keys, Tom Gleeson, Sarah E. Cornell, Will Steffen, Xuemei Bai, Johan Rockström

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

85 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Green water — terrestrial precipitation, evaporation and soil moisture — is fundamental to Earth system dynamics and is now extensively perturbed by human pressures at continental to planetary scales. However, green water lacks explicit consideration in the existing planetary boundaries framework that demarcates a global safe operating space for humanity. In this Perspective, we propose a green water planetary boundary and estimate its current status. The green water planetary boundary can be represented by the percentage of ice-free land area on which root-zone soil moisture deviates from Holocene variability for any month of the year. Provisional estimates of departures from Holocene-like conditions, alongside evidence of widespread deterioration in Earth system functioning, indicate that the green water planetary boundary is already transgressed. Moving forward, research needs to address and account for the role of root-zone soil moisture for Earth system resilience in view of ecohydrological, hydroclimatic and sociohydrological interactions.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	380-392
Number of pages	13
Journal	Nature Reviews : Earth and Environment
Volume	3
Issue number	6
Early online date	26 Apr 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8
Publication status	Published - Jun 2022
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

SAFE OPERATING SPACE
ZONE SOIL-MOISTURE
CLIMATE-CHANGE
RAINFALL SEASONALITY
LAND-USE
INTERANNUAL VARIABILITY
SEMIARID ECOSYSTEMS
VEGETATION RESPONSE
TROPICAL FORESTS
CARBON STORAGE

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

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Wang-Erlandsson, L., Tobian, A., van der Ent, R. J., Fetzer, I., te Wierik, S., Porkka, M., Staal, A., Jaramillo, F., Dahlmann, H., Singh, C., Greve, P., Gerten, D., Keys, P. W., Gleeson, T., Cornell, S. E., Steffen, W., Bai, X., & Rockström, J. (2022). A planetary boundary for green water. Nature Reviews : Earth and Environment, 3(6), 380-392. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

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Wang-Erlandsson, L, Tobian, A, van der Ent, RJ, Fetzer, I, te Wierik, S, Porkka, M, Staal, A, Jaramillo, F, Dahlmann, H, Singh, C, Greve, P, Gerten, D, Keys, PW, Gleeson, T, Cornell, SE, Steffen, W, Bai, X & Rockström, J 2022, 'A planetary boundary for green water', Nature Reviews : Earth and Environment, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 380-392. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

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AU - Greve, Peter

AU - Gerten, Dieter

AU - Keys, Patrick W.

AU - Gleeson, Tom

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AU - Steffen, Will

AU - Bai, Xuemei

AU - Rockström, Johan

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KW - SEMIARID ECOSYSTEMS

KW - VEGETATION RESPONSE

KW - TROPICAL FORESTS

KW - CARBON STORAGE

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JO - Nature Reviews : Earth and Environment

JF - Nature Reviews : Earth and Environment

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ER -

A planetary boundary for green water

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Data accompanying article: A planetary boundary for green water

SOS.aquaterra: Respecting safe operating spaces: opportunities to meet future food demand with sustainable use of water and land resources

Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point

Cite this

A planetary boundary for green water

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

OpenUrl availability

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Datasets

Data accompanying article: A planetary boundary for green water

Projects

SOS.aquaterra: Respecting safe operating spaces: opportunities to meet future food demand with sustainable use of water and land resources

Press/Media

Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point

Cite this