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 › Review article › peer-review

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	2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8
Publication status	Published - Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
L.W.-E., A.T., I.F., C.S., J.R. and A.S. acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council through the ‘Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene’ project (no. ERC-2016-ADG 743080). R.J.v.d.E. acknowledges funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), project number 016.Veni.181.015. M.P. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 819202).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Springer Nature Limited.

Keywords

Governance
Hydorlogy
Water resources

UN SDGs

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

Access to Document

10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

Cite this

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. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

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title = "A planetary boundary for green water",

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.",

keywords = "Governance, Hydorlogy, Water resources",

author = "Lan Wang-Erlandsson and Arne Tobian and {van der Ent}, {Ruud J.} and Ingo Fetzer and {te Wierik}, Sofie and Miina Porkka and Arie Staal and Fernando Jaramillo and Heindriken Dahlmann and Chandrakant Singh and Peter Greve and Dieter Gerten and Keys, {Patrick W.} and Tom Gleeson and Cornell, {Sarah E.} and Will Steffen and Xuemei Bai and Johan Rockstr{\"o}m",

note = "Funding Information: L.W.-E., A.T., I.F., C.S., J.R. and A.S. acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council through the {\textquoteleft}Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene{\textquoteright} project (no. ERC-2016-ADG 743080). R.J.v.d.E. acknowledges funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), project number 016.Veni.181.015. M.P. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 819202). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, Springer Nature Limited.",

year = "2022",

month = jun,

doi = "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

TY - JOUR

T1 - A planetary boundary for green water

AU - Wang-Erlandsson, Lan

AU - Tobian, Arne

AU - van der Ent, Ruud J.

AU - Fetzer, Ingo

AU - te Wierik, Sofie

AU - Porkka, Miina

AU - Staal, Arie

AU - Jaramillo, Fernando

AU - Dahlmann, Heindriken

AU - Singh, Chandrakant

AU - Greve, Peter

AU - Gerten, Dieter

AU - Keys, Patrick W.

AU - Gleeson, Tom

AU - Cornell, Sarah E.

AU - Steffen, Will

AU - Bai, Xuemei

AU - Rockström, Johan

N1 - Funding Information: L.W.-E., A.T., I.F., C.S., J.R. and A.S. acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council through the ‘Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene’ project (no. ERC-2016-ADG 743080). R.J.v.d.E. acknowledges funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), project number 016.Veni.181.015. M.P. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 819202). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Springer Nature Limited.

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Governance

KW - Hydorlogy

KW - Water resources

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U2 - 10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

DO - 10.1038/s43017-022-00287-8

M3 - Review article

SN - 2662-138X

VL - 3

SP - 380

EP - 392

JO - Nature Reviews Earth and Environment

JF - Nature Reviews Earth and Environment

IS - 6

ER -

A planetary boundary for green water

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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