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Science 15 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5597, pp. 1410 - 1411
DOI: 10.1126/science.1075390
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Reports

The Cause of Decreased Pan Evaporation over the Past 50 Years

Michael L. Roderick, Graham D. Farquhar*

Changes in the global water cycle can cause major environmental and socioeconomic impacts. As the average global temperature increases, it is generally expected that the air will become drier and that evaporation from terrestrial water bodies will increase. Paradoxically, terrestrial observations over the past 50 years show the reverse. Here, we show that the decrease in evaporation is consistent with what one would expect from the observed large and widespread decreases in sunlight resulting from increasing cloud coverage and aerosol concentration.

Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting, Research School of Biological Sciences, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
*   To whom correspondence should be sent. E-mail: farquhar{at}rsbs.anu.edu.au

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