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Evaporative cooling exceeded albedo-induced warming in greening areas of global drylands
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  • Published: 14 February 2026

Evaporative cooling exceeded albedo-induced warming in greening areas of global drylands

  • Mojolaoluwa T. Daramola1,2,3,
  • Renqiang Li2 &
  • Ming Xu2,4,5 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Climate sciences
  • Ecology
  • Environmental sciences

Abstract

Greening plays a key role in surface-atmosphere energy exchanges, exerting feedback on the climate. While several studies have examined greening feedback in forested regions, the effect on temperature feedbacks in global drylands remain poorly understood. In this study, we used a combination of satellite and reanalysis data to examine the global dryland greening trends over the past two decades and assessed the changes in the biophysical properties. Results show that the greening-induced changes in surface albedo affected net shortwave radiation; however, evapotranspiration linked to changes in soil moisture dominated the temperature feedback, accounting for approximately 54–83% of the feedback signal. This dominance was most pronounced for daytime surface temperature, where the evapotranspiration effect was up 66% more than that of surface albedo. Significant greening was associated with a decrease in daytime surface temperature of 0.53 and 0.8 °C/decade, while significant browning was associated with an increase of 0.86 and 1.32 °C/ decade. Although greening was significant over the global drylands, soil moisture availability strongly controlled evapotranspiration and its contribution to temperature feedback. As dryland continues to warm, moisture availability is important for plant functioning, which impacts the regional climate through surface and atmosphere feedback and, therefore, the sustainability of drylands.

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Data availability

The MODIS data product is available at https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/. ERA5 reanalysis data are available at https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7. The GLEAM data products are available at https://www.gleam.eu/#datasets. CRU TS data is available through Harris, et al.33.

Abbreviations

AI:

Aridity index

BareE:

Baresoil evaporation

CGIAR:

Consultative group for international agriculture research

CMG:

Climate modeling grid

Ea:

Actual vapor pressure

Es:

Saturated vapor pressure

ENSO:

El Niño–Southern oscillation

ESACCI:

European space agency’s climate change initiative

ET:

Evapotranspiration

GLEAM:

Global land evaporation amsterdam model

H:

Sensible heat flux

IGBP:

International geosphere-biosphere programme

LE:

Latent heat flux

LSA:

Land surface albedo

LST:

Land surface temperature

MODIS:

Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer

NAO:

North atlantic oscillation

NDVI:

Normalized difference vegetation index

P:

Precipitation

PET:

Potential evapotranspiration

SM:

Soil moisture

VegT:

Vegetation transpiration

VPD:

Vapor pressure deficit

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the support from the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFF0805900-03, 2018YFA0606500). The first author was a recipient of a research studentship provided by the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) Scholarship.

Funding

This research was supported by the Guangdong‐Hong Kong Joint Laboratory for Carbon Neutrality (No.2023B1212120003), the Guangdong Talent Program (No.2023JC10N060), the Guangdong Science and Technology Program (No.2022B1212040001), and the Special Fund for Science and Technology Innovation Strategy of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2022660500250009604). Mojolaoluwa T. Daramola is currently supported by Research Ireland (RI 22/CC/11103).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (ICARUS), Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland

    Mojolaoluwa T. Daramola

  2. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Beijing, 100101, China

    Mojolaoluwa T. Daramola, Renqiang Li & Ming Xu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Mojolaoluwa T. Daramola

  4. BNU-HKUST Laboratory for Green Innovation, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, Zhuhai, 519087, China

    Ming Xu

  5. Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory for Carbon Neutrality, Jiangmen Laboratory of Carbon Science and Technology, Jiangmen, 529199, Guangdong Province, China

    Ming Xu

Authors
  1. Mojolaoluwa T. Daramola
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  2. Renqiang Li
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Contributions

**M.T.D.** : conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing **M.X.** : conceptualization, methodology, supervision, funding acquisition **R.L.** : supervision, resources, project administration.

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Correspondence to Ming Xu.

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Daramola, M.T., Li, R. & Xu, M. Evaporative cooling exceeded albedo-induced warming in greening areas of global drylands. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-36781-y

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  • Received: 06 July 2025

  • Accepted: 16 January 2026

  • Published: 14 February 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-36781-y

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Keywords

  • Aridity
  • Greening
  • Browning
  • Drylands
  • Moisture
  • Feedback
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