Modeling the effects of present-day irrigation on temperature extremes over China

Irrigation activities have been recognized as one of the most potentially sustainable land management practices to tackle climate change. In this study, we investigated impacts present-day irrigation on regional temperature extremes changes in China using state-of-the-art model RegCM-4.8.2, through two sets long-term numerical experiments (i.e., with and without irrigation). The key findings are follows. Firstly, by comparing observations, RegCM4 has a good ability reproduce both spatial distribution volume for provincial China. context, results experiments, found that led significant reductions (slightly changes) extreme indices associated warm (cold) tails maximum minimum temperatures distributions, e.g., hot days, tropical nights (cold nights, frost days), particularly regions intense (e.g., North Plain). Furthermore, these were dominated irrigation-induced shifts mean temperatures, but variability events also non-negligible strongly irrigated regions. addition, attributing state revealed repartitioning surface turbulent heat fluxes sensible latent heat) variations extremes. However, region-specific land-atmosphere coupling features differences responses energy components. We highlight possible effects mechanisms multiple types indices, events, which provide scientific clues mitigating adapting