Expansion of global drylands under a warming climate

摘要: Global drylands encompassing hyper-arid, arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas cover about 41 percent of the earth's terrestrial surface and are home to more than a third of the world's population. By analyzing observations for 1948–2008 and climate model simulations for 1948–2100, we show that global drylands have expanded in the last sixty years and will continue to expand in the 21st~ century. By the end of this century, the world's drylands (under a high greenhouse gas emission scenario) are projected to be 5.8× 10 6 km 2 (or …