Soil moisture can determine how quickly a wildfire spreads, how fast a hill turns into a mudslide and, perhaps most importantly, how productive our food systems are.
Soil moisture can determine how quickly a wildfire spreads, how fast a hill turns into a mudslide and, perhaps most importantly, how productive our food systems are. As temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change, some researchers are concerned that soils will dry. However, between 2011 to 2020, soil moisture increased across 57% of the United States during summer, the warmest time of year.
Why did soil get wetter even as the planet got hotter?
A recent paper from Harvard University researchers found that precipitation, rather than temperature, overwhelmingly explains soil moisture trends. While it’s not surprising that more rain means wetter soil, the research challenges a long-standing assumption that increases in global temperatures will lead to drier soils.
Read more at: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science
Photo Credit: hjrivas via Pixabay
