Spatiotemporal dynamics of growing-season plant-available water in the Continental United States
Data files
Oct 02, 2026 version files 5.45 GB
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baselineSMseasonal.tif
3.03 GB
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PAW_seasonal_100m.tif
2.42 GB
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README.md
2.59 KB
Abstract
Plant-available water (PAW) is a primary regulator of plant growth, ecosystem productivity, and drought resilience, yet its spatial heterogeneity and long-term response to hydrothermal changes remain poorly quantified at continental scales. Here, we quantify historical (2005-2015) and projected (2030-2100) changes in growing-season PAW across the continental United States (CONUS) by integrating site-level soil moisture observations with environmental predictors and bias-corrected downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase six (CMIP6) climate projections. Root-zone PAW (0-30 cm) was estimated from soil moisture content, field capacity, and wilting point, thereby capturing coupled soil and climatic controls on plant water availability. Ensemble CMIP6 projections under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP): SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 indicate widespread declines in growing-season PAW, driven primarily by increasing temperature and vapor-pressure deficit that increase atmospheric evaporative demand, outpacing projected precipitation gains, with substantially stronger drying under SSP5-8.5. Compared to baseline conditions, PAW declines across approximately 6.9-19.8 % of the CONUS, with the largest reductions concentrated in the Great Plains, western Corn Belt, and Intermountain West ecoregions. In contrast, 76.2-84.6 % of the region shows no significant change, while 4.0-8.5 % exhibits increases, primarily across northern forested regions. Collectively, these findings identify emerging hotspots of PAW limitation and highlight growing risks to crop production and rangeland resilience, emphasizing the need for region-specific adaptation and water-management strategies under future environmental conditions.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5x69p8dmj
Overview
This dataset provides high-resolution raster layers representing soil hydrological conditions, specifically focusing on Volumetric Soil Moisture and Plant Available Water (PAW). These datasets are designed for hydrological modeling, agricultural planning, drought monitoring, and environmental research.
Data Variables
Both variables are provided in volumetric units (cubic meters of water per cubic meter of soil).
| Variable | Abbreviation | Units | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volumetric Soil Moisture | SM | m³/m³ | The ratio of water volume to the total soil volume. This represents the total amount of water currently held in the soil profile. |
| Plant Available Water | PAW | m³/m³ | The portion of soil water that can be readily absorbed by plant roots. It is typically calculated as the difference between Field Capacity and the Permanent Wilting Point. |
Technical Specifications
- Data Format: [GeoTIFF (.tif)]
- Coordinate Reference System (CRS): [NAD83 / Conus Albers (EPSG:5070)]
- Spatial Resolution: [100 meters]
- Temporal Resolution: [Yearly average]
- NoData Value: [e.g., -9999, NaN]
- Data Type: [e.g., Float32]
Usage Notes
- Handling NoData: Ensure your GIS software or processing scripts are set to ignore the designated NoData value (e.g., -9999) to avoid skewed statistical analyses.
- Software Compatibility: These rasters can be processed using standard open-source geospatial libraries (like
rasterioin Python orterrain R) or desktop GIS software (QGIS, ArcGIS).
Attribution & Contact
- Data Provider / Author: [Sagar Gautam]
- Contact Information: [sgautam@sandia.gov]
Files and variables
File: baselineSMseasonal.tif
Description: Baseline Soil moisture
File: PAW_seasonal_100m.tif
Description: Baseline Plant available moisture
Code/software
R, Arcgis
