Nature Search

Flash droughts exacerbate global vegetation loss and delay recovery

Climate change is increasing the frequency of flash droughts worldwide, posing threats to global ecosystems. This study suggests that flash droughts cause 1.5 times greater vegetation loss than conventional droughts and delay ecosystem recovery, with impacts intensifying over recent decades.

Yuanfang Chai
Chiyuan Miao
Josep Peñuelas
ResearchOpen Access08 Dec 2025
Nature Communications

Volume: 17, P: 1-11
New insights from the bias-corrected simulations of CMIP6 in Northern Hemisphere’s snow drought

Under high-emission scenarios by 2100, exceptional snow droughts will increase in frequency and duration, particularly affecting water-stressed areas such as Europe, western Asia, and central North America, according to a Cumulative Distribution Function-transform bias correction method.

Yong Hu
Xuhai Yang
Yuanfang Chai
ResearchOpen Access13 Jan 2026
Communications Earth & Environment

Volume: 7, P: 1-13
Constrained Earth system models show a stronger reduction in future Northern Hemisphere snowmelt water

Many climate models overestimate the snow amount in the Northern Hemisphere despite strong warming. Here the authors find that light snowfall and snow melting processes drive this mismatch and use these relationships to constrain future projections of snow water resources.

Yuanfang Chai
Chiyuan Miao
Francis Zwiers
Research28 Mar 2025
Nature Climate Change

Volume: 15, P: 514-520
Constrained tropical land temperature-precipitation sensitivity reveals decreasing evapotranspiration and faster vegetation greening in CMIP6 projections

Boyuan Zhu
Yongzhou Cheng
Louise Slater
ResearchOpen Access14 Jul 2023
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science

Volume: 6, P: 1-9
Constrained CMIP6 projections indicate less warming and a slower increase in water availability across Asia

Reduction of uncertainty in climate projections is a key issue for climate change adaptation. Here the authors show that an applying an emergent constraint effectively reduces projection uncertainty across Asia, and reveals less warming and a slower increase in water availability than previously estimated.

Yuanfang Chai
Yao Yue
Guojie Wang
ResearchOpen Access15 Jul 2022
Nature Communications

Volume: 13, P: 1-9
Original vegetation condition and precipitation growth rate bifurcate sediment flux trend on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Multivariate climate elasticity modelling of pathway-specific contributions to sediment dynamics in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau suggest sediment trend bifurcations are driven by interactions among precipitation, temperature, and vegetation under climate change

Jinhao Guo
Yao Yue
Zhonghua Yang
ResearchOpen Access07 Feb 2025
Communications Earth & Environment

Volume: 6, P: 1-10
Emergent constraints indicate slower increases in future global evapotranspiration

Yuanfang Chai
Yao Yue
Chiyuan Miao
ResearchOpen Access12 Feb 2025
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science

Volume: 8, P: 1-9
Constraining Amazonian land surface temperature sensitivity to precipitation and the probability of forest dieback

Yuanfang Chai
Guilherme Martins
Han Dolman
ResearchOpen Access11 Feb 2021
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science

Volume: 4, P: 1-7
Influence of Climate Variability and Reservoir Operation on Streamflow in the Yangtze River

Yuanfang Chai
Yitian Li
Congcong Liu
ResearchOpen Access25 Mar 2019
Scientific Reports

Volume: 9, P: 1-10

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