Spatiotemporal Patterns, Driving Mechanisms and Responses of Soil Drought to Meteorological Drought in the Yellow River Basin of China

ABSTRACT With the escalation of global warming, the potential for land evaporation in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) has increased remarkably, and the problem of soil drought has become increasingly prominent. This not only restricts the development of the agricultural economy in the basin, but also intensifies the disparity between water availability and demand, and exerts a profound influence on the ecological security of the basin. In light of this, this study focuses on soil moisture in the YRB from 2000 to 2022, and conducts an in‐depth analysis of the temporal evolution, spatial patterns, abrupt change characteristics as well as the driving forces of soil drought by calculating the Standardised Soil Moisture Index (SSMI). The results show that: (1) Soil drought in the YRB from 2000 to 2022 exhibited a decreasing trend. A negative abrupt change point occurred in February 2004, indicating a sudden intensification of arid conditions. The soil drought in the Above Longyangxia (AL) region exhibited the most significant decreasing trend in September. (2) The most severe soil drought occurred in 2006, and the drought was most intense in November of that year, when the drought‐affected area reaching 86.96%. The severely drought‐stricken areas were predominantly concentrated in the central and northern regions of the basin. (3) The SSMI in the second‐level sub‐regions of the YRB exhibits three types of abrupt changes: increase to decrease, intermittent increase, and decrease to increase, and shows a clear trend from upstream to downstream. (4) The results of cross‐wavelet analysis indicate that soil moisture‐absolute humidity‐soil temperature is the best explanatory combination for soil drought. (5) The slopes of the small‐ and medium‐scale fittings in the AL region are 0.5021 and 0.2584, respectively, and the corresponding mean values of meteorological drought severity are 0.87 and 2.57, respectively. Drought events in the YRB are mainly of medium/short duration and low severity, and soil drought severity tends to increase with the intensification of meteorological drought. This study reveals the spatiotemporal variation patterns of soil drought in the YRB, as well as the responses of climate to soil drought. These findings provide a scientific basis for drought resistance and ecological protection within the basin.