Left High and Dry: Deep Soil Water Depletion and Ecohydrological Resilience on China's Loess Plateau скачать в хорошем качестве

Left High and Dry: Deep Soil Water Depletion and Ecohydrological Resilience on China's Loess Plateau

China's Loess Plateau has more than doubled its vegetation cover since the late 1990s---a global model of ecological restoration. But what if that success is quietly draining the region's water reserves? This video summarizes my 2026 WIREs Water paper, which synthesizes four converging lines of evidence that reveal a slow-moving hydrological crisis beneath the plateau's green surface. First, bomb-peak tritium archives show that 1960s rainfall is still migrating through the subsurface at 7-14 m depth---direct evidence of decades-long water residence times. Second, roots of afforestation species routinely extend 5-15 m, drawing on this "paleo" moisture. Third, stand-age trajectories show that deep soil water is predictably exhausted within 15-25 years of planting, forming chronic dried soil layers. Fourth, drought compresses hydrological niches among coexisting species, intensifying competition and ecological risk. Together, these dynamics point to an accumulating hydrological debt: greening financed not by recent rainfall, but by legacy moisture that won't be quickly repaid. The paper closes with adaptive strategies---thinning, rotation, spatial mosaics, and rainwater harvesting---that could help align vegetation structure with the plateau's limited water supply. The lesson is globally relevant: greening without water balance is not resilience, but debt. Paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.70053 #ecohydrology #hydrology #LoessPlateau #soilwater #isotopes #tritium #reforestation #drylandrestoration #climatechange