1950年至1980年间的全球水文循环的衰弱归因于大气中气溶胶的增加，《自然—气候变化》上的一项研究报告如是说。当环境变暖时，降水和河水流量的增加是理所当然，但是这种变化仍未获得观测。高浓度的人源性大气粒子要为这种矛盾承担责任，直到上世纪80年代，逐渐增加的温室气体才主导水文循环的恢复过程。
Peili Wu等人分析了气候模型模拟数据以找出气候变化对水文循环的影响。他们发现观测到的降水趋势由两种人为因素造成——大气气溶胶和温室气体浓度。
最近几年，在大气污染减少的情况下所增加的气体排放增强了水文循环，这意味着如果目前这种趋势持续下去，未来降水将可能有所增加。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Nature Climate Change doi:10.1038/nclimate1932
Anthropogenic impact on Earth’s hydrological cycle
Peili Wu,1 Nikolaos Christidis1 & Peter Stott1
The global hydrological cycle is a key component of Earth’s climate system. A significant amount of the energy the Earth receives from the Sun is redistributed around the world by the hydrological cycle in the form of latent heat flux1. Changes in the hydrological cycle have a direct impact on droughts, floods, water resources and ecosystem services. Observed land precipitation2, 3, 4 and global river discharges5 do not show an increasing trend as might be expected in a warming world6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Here we show that this apparent discrepancy can be resolved when the effects of tropospheric aerosols are considered. Analysing state-of-the-art climate model simulations, we find for the first time that there was a detectable weakening of the hydrological cycle between the 1950s and the 1980s, attributable to increased anthropogenic aerosols, after which the hydrological cycle recovered as a result of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. The net result of these two counter-acting effects is an insignificant trend in the global hydrological cycle, but the individual influence of each is substantial. Reductions in air pollution have already shown an intensification in the past two decades12, 13, 14 and a further rapid increase in precipitation could be expected if the current trend continues.
