Contribution to precipitation over some area by water previously precipitated in that area
In hydrology, moisture recycling or precipitation recycling refer to the process by which a portion of the precipitatedwater that evapotranspired from a given area contributes to the precipitation over the same area. Moisture recycling is thus a component of the hydrologic cycle. The ratio of the locally derived precipitation (PL) to total precipitation (P) is known as the recycling ratio, ρ:[1]
The recycling ratio is a diagnostic measure of the potential for interactions between land surface hydrology and regional climate.[2][3][4][5]Land use changes, such as deforestation or agricultural intensification, have the potential to change the amount of precipitation that falls in a region. The recycling ratio for the entire world is one, and for a single point is zero. Estimates for the recycling ratio for the Amazon basin range from 24% to 56%, and for the Mississippi basin from 21% to 24%.[6]
The concept of moisture recycling has been integrated into the concept of the precipitationshed. A precipitationshed is the upwind ocean and land surface that contributes evaporation to a given, downwind location's precipitation. In much the same way that a watershed is defined by a topographically explicit area that provides surface runoff, the precipitationshed is a statistically defined area within which evaporation, traveling via moisture recycling, provides precipitation for a specific point.
^Koster, R.; Jouzel, J.; Suozzo, R.; Russell, G.; Broecker, W.; Rind, D.; Eagleson, P. (February 1986). "Global sources of local precipitation as determined by the Nasa/Giss GCM". Geophysical Research Letters. 13 (2): 121–124. Bibcode:1986GeoRL..13..121K. doi:10.1029/GL013i002p00121.
