Now two new Flinders University studies of long-term hydro-climatic patterns provide fresh insights into the causes of the island continent’s strong climate variability which affects extreme wet or dry weather and other conditions vital to water supply, agriculture, the environment and the nation’s future.
For the first time, researchers from the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) at Flinders have revealed a vegetation-mediated seesaw wetting-drying phenomenon between eastern and western Australia.
The seesaw phenomenon covered in a new paper in Earth’s Future is characterised by eastern Australia gaining water, while western Australia is losing water, and vice-versa being reset by strong La Niña induced continent-wide wetting.
“The seesaw phase seems to depend on vegetation cover anomaly prior to the strong La Niña event, and can be explained by subsequent vegetation and soil moisture interactions,” says lead researcher Dr Huade Guan, Associate Professor in Hydrology.
“This finding provides society with valuable reference for managing forest, water, and disaster risks in the wake of a next strong La Niña induced continent-wide wetting in Australia,” says co-author Flinders University Professor Okke Batalaan.
