Drylands covered two-fifths of the Earth's land surface in 2015 (Bastin et al., 2017), with trees growing in one-third of these areas (FAO, 2019). This area of drylands has expanded by almost 1% per year since 2015 because of large-scale drying and land degradation at low and middle latitudes (Prăvălie et al., 2019). Thus, conservation and restoration of drylands are needed. Restoration is often performed with a focus on the carbon sequestration potential that can be funded by carbon markets (Bajaj, 2022). In contrast, the role of trees and forests in water cycling has been relatively neglected (Ellison et al., 2012, 2017; Sheil, 2014).