半干旱区不同类型土地利用的蒸散量及水分收支差异分析——以通榆为例

利用吉林通榆半干旱区农田站和退化草地站2008年的外场试验观测资料,对比分析了不同土地利用方式对蒸散和地表水分收支的影响。结果表明：从全年来看,尽管两个站点相距仅5 km,但农田站的全年总蒸散量比代表自然土地覆盖状况的退化草地站高28.2 mm;且生长季两种下垫面的蒸散量较为接近,差异主要发生在非生长季。同时,农田站的年水分收支总量为51.1 mm,比退化草地站低35.6％。具体来说,生长季,两个站点的水分收支均有盈余;但在非生长季,退化草地站的水分收支仍有盈余,而农田站则处于水分亏损状态。这说明在半干旱区,代表人为土地利用状况的农田站面临着更大的水分供给压力,人类活动导致的土地利用会加剧该地区的干旱化趋势。
　　进一步的分析表明,水分盈余并不代表地表的水分状况良好。从 Priestley-Taylor 系数来看,两个站点的Priestley-Taylor系数均远小于1.0,说明在半干旱区,由于表层土壤水分条件的限制,实际蒸散量远未达到平衡蒸散量,土壤面临着水分供给的压力。其可能的原因是,对半干旱区而言,尽管水分收支有盈余,但是由于土壤沙化严重,土壤孔隙度大,大气降水很容易下渗,并以地下水的形式存储起来,使得表层土壤水分供应反而不足。     

区域生态环境质量评价方法研究

以江西省贵溪市为研究区域，从生态学和环境科学观点出发，在3S技术支持下，应用20m分辨率的中巴资源卫星遥感资料、1：100000数字化地理数据和GPS抽样调查数据，结合常规调查统计法，选择与区域生态环境有关的因子(如气候、水资源、土地利用、植被、水土流失)以及部分人类活动和经济因素(污染物排放、人均耕地面积、单位面积粮食产量、人均国内生产总值等)，构建了评价指标体系，空间尺度以研究区域平均水平取值，时间尺度截止到2000年。该体系通过专家定权法和中间截取求平均值方法进行权值估计，应用生态环境评价模型对2000年研究区域的生态环境质量进行评价。结果表明，该研究区域2000年生态环境质量达Ⅱ级标准，生态环境质量总体处较好水平，主要表现在森林覆盖率高于全省平均水平，达61．0％；人均耕地面积及产量水平分别为0．06hm^2／人和8025kg／hm^2，处全省中上水平；水土流失面积达61974hm^2，且治理效果好；生物多样性受到一定保护；GDP居全省前列，为该区域生态环境保护和治理提供了一定的经济基础。目前该区域存在的主要问题是：水质为国家Ⅲ级标准，应通过综合治理进一步提高标准；为较多气象灾害发生区；由于特殊的地理条件，导致土壤侵蚀的隐患较大。     

Soil moisture prediction over the Australian continent

Summary This paper describes an attempt to model soil moisture over the Australian continent with an integrated system of dynamic models and a Geographic Information System (GIS) data base. A land surface scheme with improved treatment of soil hydrological processes is described. The non-linear relationships between soil hydraulic conductivity, matric potential and soil moisture are derived from the Broadbridge and White soil model. For a single location, the prediction of the scheme is in good agreement with the measurements of the Hydrological and Atmospheric Pilot Experiment (HAPEX). High resolution atmospheric and geographic data are used in soil moisture prediction over the Australian continent. The importance of reliable land surface parameters is emphasized and details are given for deriving the parameters from a GIS. Predicted soil moisture patterns over the Australian continent in summer, with a 50 km spatial resolution, are found to be closely related to the distribution of soil types, apart from isolated areas and times under the influence of precipitation. This is consistent with the notion that the Australian continent in summer is generally under water stress. In contrast, predicted soil temperatures are more closely related to radiation patterns and changes in atmospheric circulation. The simulation can provide details of soil moisture evolution both in space and time, that are very useful for studies of land use sustainability, such as plant growth modelling and soil erosion prediction.With 12 Figures     

陆面过程模式中地下水位的参数化及初步应用

田间研究表明地表水和地下水有重要的相互作用,它与土壤含水量密切相关.土壤含水量不仅在陆气相互作用系统水和能量平衡中,而且在干旱、洪水预报、水资源管理、生态系统研究中起十分重要的作用.因此,研究地表水和地下水的相互作用,建立陆面模式中地下水位的动态表示,对于气候与水资源研究具有重要意义.将地下水位的动态表示问题归结为饱和与非饱和流问题,发展了其数值计算方案,建立了地下水位的动态表示,并与陆面过程模型耦合,建立了陆气相互作用中地下水位的动态表示,并进行了数值模拟研究.     

Trends,drivers and impacts of changes in swidden cultivation in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers: A global assessment

This meta-analysis of land-cover transformations of the past 10–15 years in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers world-wide shows that swidden agriculture decreases in landscapes with access to local, national and international markets that encourage cattle production and cash cropping, including biofuels. Conservation policies and practices also accelerate changes in swidden by restricting forest clearing and encouraging commercial agriculture. However, swidden remains important in many frontier areas where farmers have unequal or insecure access to investment and market opportunities, or where multi-functionality of land uses has been preserved as a strategy to adapt to current ecological, economic and political circumstances. In some areas swidden remains important simply because intensification is not a viable choice, for example when population densities and/or food market demands are low. The transformation of swidden landscapes into more intensive land uses has generally increased household incomes, but has also led to negative effects on the social and human capital of local communities to varying degrees. From an environmental perspective, the transition from swidden to other land uses often contributes to permanent deforestation, loss of biodiversity, increased weed pressure, declines in soil fertility, and accelerated soil erosion. Our prognosis is that, despite the global trend towards land use intensification, in many areas swidden will remain part of rural landscapes as the safety component of diversified systems, particularly in response to risks and uncertainties associated with more intensive land use systems.     

地表非均匀性对区域平均水分通量参数化的影响

次网格尺度地表非均匀性对于网格区平均通量具有重要影响。若将网格区视为均一地表 ,并不能真实描述地 气通量交换过程 ,且可造成很大误差。文中从理论上证明 ,区域平均水分通量的变化率可分解为两部分 :第一部分为区域水分通量的算术平均变化率 ;第二部分为非均匀性所引起的水分通量变化率扰动 ,它与区域内土壤水分空间分布的变差系数有关。数值试验表明 ,地表土壤水分的水平空间变差系数集中反映了区域内土壤水分分布的非均匀程度 ,不同土壤对同样的非均匀程度其敏感性是不同的。变差系数愈大 ,非均匀性愈强 ,在相同的土壤水分平均值下 ,不同土壤类型对地表非均匀程度的敏感性并不相同。例如沙土和粘土受非均匀性的影响就可相差数十倍。     

Climatic change impacts on the ecohydrology of Mediterranean watersheds

Impact of climate change on ecohydrologic processes of Mediterranean watersheds are significant and require quick action toward improving adaptation and management of fragile system. Increase in water shortages and land use can alter the water balance and ecological health of the watershed systems. Intensification of land use, increase in water abstraction, and decline in water quality can be enhanced by changes in temperature and precipitation regimes. Ecohydrologic changes from climatic impacts alter runoff, evapotranspiration, surface storage, and soil moisture that directly affect biota and habitat of the region. This paper reviews expected impacts of climatic change on the ecohydrology of watershed systems of the Mediterranean and identifies adaptation strategies to increase the resilience of the systems. A spatial assessment of changes in temperature and precipitation estimates from a multimodel ensemble is used to identify potential climatic impacts on watershed systems. This is augmented with literature on ecohydrologic impacts in watershed systems of the region. Hydrologic implications are discussed through the lens of geographic distribution and upstream-downstream dynamics in watershed systems. Specific implications of climatic change studied are on runoff, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, lake levels, water quality, habitat, species distribution, biodiversity, and economic status of countries. It is observed that climatic change can have significant impacts on the ecohydrologic processes in the Mediterranean watersheds. Vulnerability varied depending on the geography, landscape characteristics, and human activities in a watershed. Increasing the resilience of watershed systems can be an effective strategy to adapt to climatic impacts. Several strategies are identified that can increase the resilience of the watersheds to climatic and land use change stress. Understanding the ecohydrologic processes is vital to development of effective long-term strategies to improve the resilience of watersheds. There is need for further research into ecohydrologic dynamics at multiple scales, improved resolution of climatic predictions to local scales, and implications of disruptions on regional economies.     

2030年上海地区相对海平面变化趋势的研究和预测

从全球气候变化区域响应角度,依据1912-2000年吴淞验潮站年平均潮位资料,构建灰色线性回归组合模型,并将其与最小二乘法和小波变换相结合,分析以吴淞为代表的上海绝对海平面长期变化趋势和周期变化规律。由此预测2030年上海绝对海平面相对2011年的上升值为4 cm,结合已公布的构造沉降和城市地面沉降、流域水土保持和大型水利工程及人工挖沙导致的河口河槽冲刷、河口围海造地和深水航道及跨江跨海大桥导致水位抬升等叠加效应及其变化趋势,预测2030年上海市相对海平面上升10～16 cm,陆地海平面上升有7个风险分区。     

Potential of Desertification Control to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect

There is a strong link between desertification of the drylands and emission of CO₂ from soil and vegetation to the atmosphere. Thus, there is a strong need to revisit the desertification process so that its reversal can lead to C sequestration and mitigation of the accelerated greenhouse effect. Drylands of the world occupy 6.31 billion ha (Bha) or 47% ofthe earth's land area distributed among four climates: hyper-arid (1.0 Bha), arid (1.62 Bha), semi-arid (2.37 Bha) and dry sub-humid (1.32 Bha). Principal soils of drylands are Aridisols (1.66 Bha), Entisols (1.92 Bha), Alfisols (0.38 Bha), Vertisols (0.21 Bha) and others (1.27 Bha). Drylands occur in all continents covering 2.01 Bha in Africa, 2.00 Bha in Asia, 0.68Bha in Australia, 1.32 Bha in the Americas and 0.30 Bha in Europe. Desertification, degradation of soil and vegetation in drylands resulting from climatic and anthropogenic factors, affects about 1.137 Bha of soils and an additional 2.576 Bha of rangeland vegetation. The rate of desertification is estimated at 5.8 million hectares (Mha) per year. Desertification is a biophysical process (soil, climate and vegetation) driven by socio-economic and political factors. The principal biophysical processes involved, accelerated soil erosion by water and wind and salinization, reduce soil quality and effective rooting depth, decrease vegetal cover, reduce biomass productivity, and accentuate vagaries of climateespecially low and variable rainfall. Major consequences of desertification include reduction in the total soil C pool and transfer of C from soil to the atmosphere. Total historic loss of C due to desertification may be 19 to 29 Pg. The rate of C emission from drylands due to accelerated soil erosion is estimated at 0.227 to 0.292 Pg C y^–1. Therefore, desertification control and restoration of degraded soils and ecosystems would improve soil quality, increase the pool of C in soil and biomass, and induce formation of secondary carbonates leading to a reduction of C emissions to the atmosphere. Desertification control and soil restoration are affected by establishing vegetative cover with appropriate species, improving water use efficiency, using supplemental irrigation including water harvesting, developing a strategy of integrated nutrient management for soil fertility enhancement, and adopting improved farming systems. Adoption of these improved practices also have hidden carbon costs, especially those due to production and application of herbicides and nitrogen fertilizers, pumping irrigation water etc. Restoration of eroded and salt-affected soils is important to C sequestration. Total potential of C sequestration in drylands through adoption of these measures is 0.9 to 1.9Pg C y^–1 for a 25- to 50-year period beyond which the rate of sequestration is often too low to be important. In addition to enhancing productivity and food security, C sequestration in soils and ecosystem has numerous ancillary benefits. Therefore, identification and implementation of policies is important to facilitate adoption of recommended practices and for commodification of carbon.     

Economic and ecosystem costs and benefits of alternative land use and management scenarios in the Lake Rotorua,New Zealand,catchment

A significant challenge in resource management is addressed: the perceived trade-off between economic growth and ecosystem restoration and conservation. Traditional approaches to management regard restoration as a potential cost to economic productivity. In this study we show that by considering a broader range of economic values, including ecosystem services values, an argument can be made that restoration of lake ecosystems also leads to favourable economic outcomes when commonly disregarded values are considered. Our case study analyses the ecological outcomes of different catchment mitigation and land use scenarios in terms of water quality results in a lake, assessing changes in land use values based on opportunity costs, and ecosystem services values. We show that when considering the value of ecosystem services, intensive agricultural land use is not necessarily the most economically valuable form of land use within a lake catchment. Indeed, a shift towards alternative land uses within a catchment can lead to both ongoing economic benefits and improvements in water quality. In this context, land-use change offers an option for water quality improvement that minimises lake and land mitigation costs, while adding value to catchment land use. An argument is made supporting land use change towards indigenous forest types, which can sustain alternative sources of income such as a range of recreational values, while supporting important ecosystem functions for the region.     

Climate�Csoil�Cvegetation control on groundwater table dynamics and its feedbacks in a climate model

Among the three dynamically linked branches of the water cycle, including atmospheric, surface, and subsurface water, groundwater is the largest reservoir and an active component of the hydrologic system. Because of the inherent slow response time, groundwater may be particularly relevant for long time-scale processes such as multi-years or decadal droughts. This study uses regional climate simulations with and without surface water?Cgroundwater interactions for the conterminous US to assess the influence of climate, soil, and vegetation on groundwater table dynamics, and its potential feedbacks to regional climate. Analyses show that precipitation has a dominant influence on the spatial and temporal variations of groundwater table depth (GWT). The simulated GWT is found to decrease sharply with increasing precipitation. Our simulation also shows some distinct spatial variations that are related to soil porosity and hydraulic conductivity. Vegetation properties such as minimum stomatal resistance, and root depth and fraction are also found to play an important role in controlling the groundwater table. Comparing two simulations with and without groundwater table dynamics, we find that groundwater table dynamics mainly influences the partitioning of soil water between the surface (0?C0.5?m) and subsurface (0.5?C5?m) rather than total soil moisture. In most areas, groundwater table dynamics increases surface soil moisture at the expense of the subsurface, except in regions with very shallow groundwater table. The change in soil water partitioning between the surface and subsurface is found to strongly correlate with the partitioning of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes. The evaporative fraction (EF) is generally higher during summer when groundwater table dynamics is included. This is accompanied by increased cloudiness, reduced diurnal temperature range, cooler surface temperature, and increased cloud top height. Although both convective and non-convective precipitation are enhanced, the higher EF changes the partitioning to favor more non-convective precipitation, but this result could be sensitive to the convective parameterization used. Compared to simulations without groundwater table dynamics, the dry bias in the summer precipitation is slightly reduced over the central and eastern US Groundwater table dynamics can provide important feedbacks to atmospheric processes, and these feedbacks are stronger in regions with deeper groundwater table, because the interactions between surface and subsurface are weak when the groundwater table is deep. This increases the sensitivity of surface soil moisture to precipitation anomalies, and therefore enhances land surface feedbacks to the atmosphere through changes in soil moisture and evaporative fraction. By altering the groundwater table depth, land use change and groundwater withdrawal can alter land surface response and feedback to the climate system.     

Assessment of Soil Erosion Susceptibility Using Empirical Modeling

Soil erosion is one of the most serious land degradation problems all over the world,causing irreversible land quality reduction.In this paper,we modify the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation(RUSLE) model by replacing the factors of slope length and gradient with Sediment Transport Index(STI).The Digital Elevation Model,terrain parameters,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI),and rainfall data are used as inputs to the model.Along with the application of remote sensing techniques and ground survey measurements,erosion susceptibility maps are produced.The revised models are then used to obtain the optimal estimate of soil erosion susceptibility at Alianello of southern Italy,which is prone to soil erosion.The soil loss estimated from the modified RUSLE model shows a large spatial variance,ranging from 10 to as much as 7000 ton ha 1 yr 1.The high erosion susceptible area constitutes about 46.8% of the total erosion area,and when classified by land cover type,33% is "mixed bare with shrubs and grass",followed by 5.29% of "mixture of shrubs and trees",with "shrubs" having the lowest percentage of 0.06%.In terms of slope types,very steep slope accounts for a total of 40.90% and belongs to high susceptibility,whereas flat slope accounts for only 0.12%,indicating that flat topography has little effect on the erosion hazard.As far as the geomorphologic types are concerned,the type of "moderate steep-steep slopes with moderate to severe erosion" is most favorable to high soil erosion,which comprises about 9.34%.Finally,we validate the soil erosion map from the adapted RUSLE model against the visual interpretation map,and find a similarity degree of 71.9%,reflecting the efficiency of the adapted RUSLE model in mapping the soil erosion in this study area.     

Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program

The social and cultural dimensions of arctic environmental change were explored through Canada??s International Polar Year (IPY) research program. Drawing on concepts of vulnerability, resilience and human security, we discuss preliminary results of 15 IPY research projects (of 52) which dealt with the effects and responses of northern communities to issues of ecological variability, natural resource development and climate change. This paper attempts to determine whether the preliminary results of these projects have contributed to the IPY program goal of building knowledge about well-being in the arctic. The projects were diverse in focus and approach but together offer a valuable pan-northern perspective on many themes including land and resource use, food security, poverty and best practices of northern engagement. Case study research using self-reported measures suggests individual views of their own well-being differ from regional and territorial standardized statistics on quality of life. A large body of work was developed around changes in land and resource use. A decline in land and resource use in some areas and consequent concerns for food security, are directly linked to the effects of climate change, particularly in coastal areas where melting sea ice, erratic weather events and changes in the stability of landscapes (e.g., erosion, slumping) are leading to increased risks for land users. Natural resource development, while creating some new economic opportunities, may be compounding rather than offsetting such stresses of environmental change for vulnerable populations. While the IPY program has contributed to our understanding of some aspects of well-being in the arctic, many other issues of social, economic, cultural and political significance, including those unrelated to environmental change, remain poorly understood.     

Human appropriation of land for food: The role of diet

Human appropriation of land for food production has fundamentally altered the Earth system, with impacts on water, soil, air quality, and the climate system. Changes in population, dietary preferences, technology and crop productivity have all played important roles in shaping today’s land use. In this paper, we explore how past and present developments in diets impact on global agricultural land use. We introduce an index for the Human Appropriation of Land for Food (HALF), and use it to isolate the effects of diets on agricultural land areas, including the potential consequences of shifts in consumer food preferences. We find that if the global population adopted consumption patterns equivalent to particular current national per capita rates, agricultural land use area requirements could vary over a 14-fold range. Within these variations, the types of food commodities consumed are more important than the quantity of per-capita consumption in determining the agricultural land requirement, largely due to the impact of animal products and in particular ruminant species. Exploration of the average diets in the USA and India (which lie towards but not at global consumption extremes) provides a framework for understanding land use impacts arising from different food consumption habits. Hypothetically, if the world were to adopt the average Indian diet, 55% less agricultural land would be needed to satisfy demand, while global consumption of the average USA diet would necessitate 178% more land. Waste and over-eating are also shown to be important. The area associated with food waste, including over-consumption, given global adoption of the consumption patterns of the average person in the USA, was found to be twice that required for all food production given an average Indian per capita consumption. Therefore, measures to influence future diets and reduce food waste could substantially contribute towards global food security, as well as providing climate change mitigation options.     

陆面过程模型中垂直非均匀土壤的水分传输及相变的模拟

土壤湿度在陆气相互作用中的重要性体现在它既能影响陆地和大气之间水循环的速率, 又能改变地表的能量分配。本文针对陆面过程模型中描述土壤湿度变化的方程进行了理论分析, 指出在非均匀土壤和冻土中采用土壤水势梯度描述垂直非均匀土壤水分流动的合理性。基于描述土壤内部水热传输的统一土壤模型, 并利用推广的表征土壤水分特征的Clapp-Hornberger关系式, 研究了非冻结和冻结的土壤湿度对于垂直非均匀土壤的敏感性。结果表明, 由土壤质地决定的土壤水势和导水率对土壤湿度的模拟有重要的影响。具体地, 在决定土壤性质的Clapp-Hornberger关系式中, 与土壤质地有关的饱和水势、饱和导水率以及土壤孔隙大小分布指数B, 对土壤湿度的模拟起到了关键作用。参数B的重要性尤为突出, 它的增加会引起导水率的大大下降, 从而对水分在土壤中的垂直分布产生重要影响。饱和水势的绝对值和参数B的增加会使得土壤水势绝对值增加明显, 使土壤的结冰(融化)过程延迟, 土壤温度因为没有结冰(融化)释放(吸收)的潜热加热(冷却)而持续下降(上升), 因此在冻融时期土壤温度会比观测值振幅偏大。上述结果揭示了考虑土壤垂直非均匀性并采用有效的土壤特性参数对于陆面过程模型的重要性。     

Environmental impacts of urban growth from an integrated dynamic perspective: A case study of Shenzhen, South China

China is home to one-fifth of the world's population and that population is increasingly urban. The landscape is also urbanizing. Although there are studies that focus on specific elements of urban growth, there is very little empirical work that incorporates feedbacks and linkages to assess the interactions between the dynamics of urban growth and their environmental impacts. In this study, we develop a system dynamics simulation model of the drivers and environmental impacts of urban growth, using Shenzhen, South China, as a case study. We identify three phases of urban growth and develop scenarios to evaluate the impact of urban growth on several environmental indicators: land use, air quality, and demand for water and energy. The results show that all developable land will be urban by 2020 and the increase in the number of vehicles will be a major source of air pollution. Demand for water and electricity will rise, and the city will become increasingly vulnerable to shortages of either. The scenarios also show that there will be improvements in local environmental quality as a result of increasing affluence and economic growth. However, the environmental impacts outside of Shenzhen may increase as demands for natural resources increase and Shenzhen pushes its manufacturing industries out of the municipality. The findings may also portend to changes other cities in China and elsewhere in the developing world may experience as they continue to industrialize.     

How the aggressiveness of rainfalls in the Mediterranean lands is enhanced by climate change

Rainfall and overland flow are fundamental processes for Earth’s ecosystems but can also be land disturbing forces, particularly when triggered by extreme hydro-meteorological events. Examples of these extremes are rainstorms and related phenomena due to rainfall aggressiveness. They produce high-impact land processes such as soil erosion and nutrient losses. Economic and social consequences of these processes can be quite severe. However, hydrological extremes and their environmental implications are still poorly understood, particularly if analyzed in the context of climate change. Here, we analyze a 300 year long times series of historical rainfall patterns across the Mediterranean in the last three centuries and we investigate changes in the erosive forcing as related to climate changes. Our results show that the erosive forcing increased towards the end of the Little Ice Age (~1850) over western and central Mediterranean and that has been increasing in the recent warming period at low Mediterranean latitudes, due to a higher frequency of intensive storms. Such increased concentrated precipitation may lead to an intensification of land degradation processes triggered by soil erosion and transport across a range of scales from hillslopes to small catchments.     

Highlands management in a flood-prone watershed: Does reflexive reciprocity make a difference?

Poor levels of reciprocity (or “upstream/downstream” situations) are believed to discourage responsible actions and thus make sustainability harder to achieve. This paper presents a study that compares land use management resulting from concurrent reflexive reciprocal and nonreciprocal relationships in a Haitian watershed. The watershed is typically nonreciprocal in that flash floods and debris flows affecting the lowlands are thought to be initiated by upslope land management. It differs from conventional nonreciprocal cases in that the majority of people living in the lowlands own or otherwise manage upslope land. Concepts of reciprocity and self-interest indicate that downslope-residing land managers should implement more upland hazard-reduction conservation practices than upslope-residing land managers. This idea was tested using data on the number of soil conservation measures applied to upslope land parcels. The resulting multilevel model demonstrated that downslope households report employing more soil conservation measures in their upslope fields than upslope households. Additional communal actions to increase assurances of working in concert, however, are still needed to reduce disaster vulnerability.     

The role of land-surface processes in modulating the Indian monsoon annual cycle

The annual cycle of solar radiation, together with the resulting land–ocean differential heating, is traditionally considered the dominant forcing controlling the northward progression of the Indian monsoon. This study makes use of a state-of-the-art atmospheric general circulation model in a realistic configuration to conduct “perpetual” experiments aimed at providing new insights into the role of land–atmosphere processes in modulating the annual cycle of precipitation over India. The simulations are carried out at three important stages of the monsoon cycle: March, May, and July. Insolation and SSTs are held fixed at their respective monthly mean values, thus eliminating any external seasonal forcing. In the perpetual May experiment both precipitation and circulation are able to considerably evolve only by regional internal land–atmosphere processes and the mediation of soil hydrology. A large-scale equilibrium state is reached after approximately 270 days, closely resembling mid-summer climatological conditions. As a result, despite the absence of external forcing, intense and widespread rains over India are able to develop in the May-like state. The interaction between soil moisture and circulation, modulated by surface heating over the northwestern semi-arid areas, determines a slow northwestward migration of the monsoon, a crucial feature for the existence of desert regions to the west. This also implies that the land–atmosphere system in May is far from being in equilibrium with the external forcing. The inland migration of the precipitation front comprises a succession of large-scale 35–50 day coupled oscillations between soil moisture, precipitation, and circulation. The oscillatory regime is self-sustained and entirely due to the internal dynamics of the system. In contrast to the May case, minor changes in the land–atmosphere system are found when the model is initialized in March and, more surprisingly, in July, the latter case further emphasizing the role of northwestern surface heating.