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Land Surface Drying Increase

On land, global warming causes the soil to dry out, a process made worse by other climate signals such as permafrost thaw and evapotranspiration, and as rainfall is concentrated in heavy rainfall events with greater runoff. ​Soil can also dry out due to changes in large-scale circulation, such as the expansion of the Hadley Cell. As the Hadley Cell expands, dry air flowing from the tropics falls in the subtropics creating regions that are more arid. As aridity increases, dry land degrades and loses its water, vegetation and wildlife.

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