Anthropogenic forcing enhances rainfall seasonality in global land monsoon regions

Understanding how humanity's influence on the climate affects rainfall seasonality around the world is immensely important for agriculture production, ecology protection, and freshwater resource management. In this study, we qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed the potential influence of anthropogenic forcing on rainfall seasonality in global land monsoon (GM) regions using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) general circulation models. We discovered that anthropogenic forcing enhances rainfall seasonality over many parts of GM regions, and was evident in the South Asian and the most parts of the South American and the South African monsoon regions. Anthropogenic forcing partially but clearly contributed to the increasing trend of rainfall seasonality over many parts of GM regions from 1960 to 2012. Moreover, anthropogenic forcing also increased the probability of more pronounced rainfall seasonality in almost all GM regions. The results provide valuable information for agriculture, ecology, and freshwater resource management under climate warming induced by anthropogenic forcing.