Publications by authors named "Dominik L Schumacher"
Dryland expansion causes widespread water scarcity and biodiversity loss. Although the drying influence of global warming is well established, the role of existing drylands in their own expansion is relatively unknown. In this work, by tracking the air flowing over drylands, we show that the warming and drying of that air contributes to dryland expansion in the downwind direction.
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- Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, severely impacting public health, as evidenced by a record heatwave in Europe during the summer of 2022.
- Research specifically focused on Switzerland estimated that between June and August 2022, around 623 heat-related deaths occurred, representing 3.5% of all-cause mortality.
- Significantly, 60% of these deaths (approximately 370) could have been prevented if human-induced climate change had not been a factor, with older women and urban populations experiencing the highest impacts.
Reduced evaporation due to dry soils can affect the land surface energy balance, with implications for local and downwind precipitation. When evaporation is constrained by soil moisture, the atmospheric supply of water is depleted, and this deficit may propagate in time and space. This mechanism could theoretically result in the self-propagation of droughts, but the extent to which this process occurs is unknown.
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- The land biosphere interacts with the atmosphere through complex feedback processes, where climate impacts ecosystems and ecosystems affect climate.
- Research has focused on local interactions, but the influence of remote regions on ecosystems through energy and moisture is less understood.
- A study using a Lagrangian trajectory model reveals that heat and moisture advection significantly influence carbon production, particularly in water-limited areas, where periods of high heat and low moisture can harm ecosystem productivity.