Francesco Giardina

Check out our new blog post for a quick tour of the study. We put the results in a wider context, discuss what they mean for future projections, and show why rooting depth and plant-available water matter.

Rethinking Amazon water stress in Earth system models Our analysis shows that Earth system models paint the Amazon as being under water stress more frequently than what satellite observations and flux-tower measurements suggest. Correcting this bias coul...

In our latest paper, we found that most climate models overestimate plant water stress—especially in the Amazon. But is that really good news for a warming world?

communities.springernature.com/posts/rethin...

@soniaseneviratne.bsky.social @ryanpad.bsky.social

Contrary to our expectations, we found that the bias in water limitation is not directly linked to how models represent water storage. It traces back to simplified rooting depth, missing soil–plant hydraulics and fixed vegetation behaviour—areas we highlight for future model development.

I’m excited to share our new paper! We show that CMIP6 models overestimate the frequency of water limitation by roughly 14% globally and 26% in the tropics. The bias has direct consequences for drought, heat-wave and carbon-sink projections.

Large biases in the frequency of water limitation across Earth system models - Communications Earth & Environment CMIP6 Earth system models overestimate the frequency of water-limited conditions on land, by about 14% globally and 26% in the tropics, according to analyses using solar-induced fluorescence, satellit...

Can we trust Earth system models to locate and quantify land-surface water stress?

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Thank you @soniaseneviratne.bsky.social, @ryanpad.bsky.social, Benjamin Stocker and Dominik Schumacher