Fully coupled climate/dynamical vegetation model simulations over Northern Africa during the mid-Holocene

 The climate and vegetation patterns of the middle Holocene (6000 years ago; 6 ka) over Northern Africa are simulated using a fully-synchronous climate and dynamical vegetation model. The coupled model predicts a northward shift in tropical rainforest and tropical deciduous forest vegetation by about 5 degrees of latitude, and an increase in grassland at the present-day simulated Saharan boundaries. The northward expansion of vegetation over North Africa at 6 ka is initiated by an orbitally-induced amplification of the summer monsoon, and enhanced by feedback effects induced by the vegetation. These combined processes lead to a major reduction in Saharan desert area at 6 ka relative to present-day of about 50%. However, as shown in previous asynchronous modelling studies, the coupled climate/vegetation model does not fully reproduce the vegetation patterns inferred from palaeoenvironmental records, which suggest that steppe vegetation may have existed across most of Northern Africa. Orbital changes produce an intensification of monsoonal precipitation during the peak rainy season (July to September), whilst vegetation feedbacks, in addition to producing further increases in the peak intensity, play an important role in extending the rainy season from May/June through to November. The orbitally induced increases in precipitation are relatively uniform from west to east, in contrast to vegetation feedback-induced increases in precipitation which are concentrated in western North Africa. Annual-average precipitation increases caused by vegetation feedbacks are simulated to be of similar importance to orbital effects in the west, whilst they are relatively unimportant farther to the east. The orbital, vegetation and combined orbital and vegetation-induced changes in climate, from the simulations presented in this study, have been compared with results from previous modelling studies over the appropriate North African domain. Consequently, the important role of vegetation parametrizations in determining the magnitude of vegetation feedbacks has been illustrated. Further modelling studies which include the effects of changes in ocean temperature and changes in soil properties may be needed, along with additional observations, to resolve the discrepancy between model predictions of vegetation and palaeorecords for North Africa. Received: 15 June 1999 / Accepted: 14 December 1999     

Soil feedback drives the mid-Holocene North African monsoon northward in fully coupled CCSM2 simulations with a dynamic vegetation model

We explore climate-vegetation interactions in mid-Holocene North Africa with a suite of community climate system model (CCSM2) simulations. The CCSM includes synchronously coupled atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, land, and vegetation models. The CCSMs present-day precipitation for North Africa compares well with simulations of other models and observations. Mid-Holocene data reveal a wetter and greener Sahara compared to the present. The CCSM exhibits a greater, closer to the expected, precipitation increase than other models, and in response, grasses advance from 18.75° to 22.5°N in much of North Africa. Precipitation is enhanced locally by the northward advance of grasses, but suppressed regionally mainly due to an insufficient albedo decrease with the expansion of vegetation. Prior studies have always lowered the surface albedo with the expansion of vegetation in North Africa. In the CCSMs mid-Holocene simulations, the albedo decreases more because wetter soils are simulated darker than drier soils than due to expanding vegetation. These results isolate albedo as the key ingredient in obtaining a positive precipitation-vegetation feedback in North Africa. Two additional simulations support this conclusion. In the first simulation, the deserts sandy soil textures are changed to loam to represent increased organic matter. Soil water retention and grass cover increase; albedo decreases somewhat. Precipitation responds with a small, yet widespread, increase. In the second simulation, a darker soil color is prescribed for this region. Now the monsoon advances north about 4°. These results illustrate a North African monsoon highly sensitive to changes in surface albedo and less sensitive to changes in evapotranspiration.     

Climate sensitivity to wetlands and wetland vegetation in mid-Holocene North Africa

 Wetland regions are important components of the local climate, with their own characteristic surface energy and moisture budgets. Realistic representation of wetlands, including the important vegetation component, may therefore be necessary for more accurate simulations of climate and climate change. However, many land-atmosphere coupled models either ignore wetlands or treat wetlands as bare, water-saturated soil, neglecting the vegetation present within wetland environments. This study investigates the possible response of the mid-Holocene climate of North Africa to changes in orbital forcing, both with and without the presence of wetlands. The location of these wetlands is guided by analysis of paleovegetation and wetland distribution. In this study, the wetland regime in the land surface component of a climate model was modified to incorporate vegetation. Field measurements have shown that vegetation affects water loss associated with evaporation (including transpiration) within a wetland area. Comparisons between non-vegetated wetland and vegetated wetland revealed an increase in local albedo that produced an associated decrease in net radiation, evaporation and precipitation in the vicinity of the wetlands regions. Based on an analysis of the model surface water balance, the calculated area of mid-Holocene wetland coverage for North Africa closely matches the observed. For the North African region as a whole, the effects of adding vegetation to the wetland produced relatively small changes in climate, but local recycling of water may have served to help maintain paleo wetland communities. Received: 16 March 1999 / Accepted: 17 May 2000     

植被覆盖变化对区域气候影响的研究进展

陆面植被覆盖变化作为全球及区域气候变化的重要影响因素之一，在近几十年来逐渐受到科学家们的关注，特别是通过大量的数值模拟研究了不同陆面覆盖状况对大气和气候变化的影响，取得了重要进展。研究结果普遍认为，植被覆盖变化通过改变地表反照率、粗糙度和土壤湿度等地表属性，从而影响辐射平衡、水分平衡等过程，最终可以导致区域降水、环流形势及大气温度、湿度等气候变化。总结了近十年国内外的相关研究及初步成果，尤其是植被变化对中国区域气候的影响，大部分研究认为，大范围植被退化使我国地表温度升高，东亚夏季风环流减弱，降水减少，使华北干旱加剧。同时指出了研究中存在问题及今后的工作重点。     

陆面植被类型对华北地区夏季降水影响的数值模拟研究

为了检验陆面植被类型变化对华北地区夏季降水的影响,共做了５组数值试验,结果表明,在华北地区以草原或沙漠代替落叶林后,华北地区夏季降水略有减少,但降水总量变化不大,这主要是由于降水变化的区域分布不一致所致;在华北西北部以沙漠代替草原后,华北地区平均降水有所增加,这主要是由华北北部地区降水增加引起的。上述三个试验中,华北 中部以南地区的降水变化主要由积云对流降水变化引起,以北主要由大尺度降水变化引起。     

Influence of dynamic vegetation on climate change arising from increasing CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>

A dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM) is coupled to an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) to investigate the influence of vegetation dynamics on climate change under conditions of global warming. The model results are largely in agreement with observations and the results of previous studies in terms of the present climate, present potential vegetation, present net primary productivity (NPP), and pre-industrial carbon budgets. The equilibrium state of climate properties are compared among pre-industrial, doubled, and quadrupled atmospheric CO₂ values using DGVM–AGCM and current AGCM with fixed vegetation to evaluate the influence of dynamic vegetation change. We also separated the contributions of temperature, precipitation and CO₂ fertilization on vegetation change. The results reveal an amplification of global warming climate sensitivity by 10% due to the inclusion of dynamic vegetation. The total effects of elevated CO₂ and climate change also lead to an increase in NPP and vegetation coverage globally. The reduction of albedo associated with this greening results in enhanced global warming. Our separation analysis indicates that temperature alters vegetation at high latitudes such as Siberia or Alaska, where there is a switch from tundra to forest. On the other hand, CO₂ fertilization provides the largest contribution to greening in arid/semi-arid region. Precipitation change did not cause any drastic vegetation shift.     

Parameterization of snow-free land surface albedo as a function of vegetation phenology based on MODIS data and applied in climate modelling

The aim of this study was to develop an advanced parameterization of the snow-free land surface albedo for climate modelling describing the temporal variation of surface albedo as a function of vegetation phenology on a monthly time scale. To estimate the effect of vegetation phenology on snow-free land surface albedo, remotely sensed data products from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the NASA Terra platform measured during 2001 to 2004 are used. The snow-free surface albedo variability is determined by the optical contrast between the vegetation canopy and the underlying soil surface. The MODIS products of the white-sky albedo for total shortwave broad bands and the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) are analysed to separate the vegetation canopy albedo from the underlying soil albedo. Global maps of pure soil albedo and pure vegetation albedo are derived on a 0.5° regular latitude/longitude grid, re-sampling the high-resolution information from remote sensing-measured pixel level to the model grid scale and filling up gaps from the satellite data. These global maps show that in the northern and mid-latitudes soils are mostly darker than vegetation, whereas in the lower latitudes, especially in semi-deserts, soil albedo is mostly higher than vegetation albedo. The separated soil and vegetation albedo can be applied to compute the annual surface albedo cycle from monthly varying leaf area index. This parameterization is especially designed for the land surface scheme of the regional climate model REMO and the global climate model ECHAM5, but can easily be integrated into the land surface schemes of other regional and global climate models.     

Global climate changes and moisture conditions in the intracontinental arid zones

In order to estimate a transient response of the local hydrological cycle and vegetation cover in the African monsoon area to global climate changes, a simple two-dimensional water vapor transport model coupled with a carbon cycle model for the soil was used. The key difference from other models is that we take into account a positive feedback between the precipitation and development of the vegetation root system in the underlying surface. As our calculation shows, this feedback is responsible for a long-term transient response of local hydrological cycles to the global temperature changes. In the case of a four component vegetation system - tropical forests, savannah, semi desert and desert, (and 2 °C ocean surface water warming), a new steady-state is reached in about 1500 years.In previous works of other authors, the increase of summer precipitations during Holocene or Last Interglacial could be explained only as a result of the surface temperature increase in the intracontinental parts of Africa. However, from paleodata indicates, the temperature in the intracontinental regions of Africa rather decreased during warm epochs of geological past: Holocene optimum, Last Interglacial and middle Pliocene climatic optimum. Our simple model simulations agree with both paleoprecipitation and paleotemperature data.     

Simulation of desert-scrub growth: A forcing to warmer and more pluvial climate

Desert-fringe vegetation growing over bright, sandy soils reduces the surface albedo from above 0.4 to well be-low 0.3. Called desert-scrub, these shrubs form a predominantly vertical clumps protruding from the soil-level, thereby significantly increasing the coefficient of turbulent heat transfer from the surface. The impact on global and desert-belt climate of changes in these two surface characteristics was simulated by a multi-layer energy balance model. Evaluated only as a forcing to a further climatic change (that is, without accounting for any possible feedbacks) the results are: if vegetation (such as apparently existed under the warmer climate of 6,000 BP) grows over large areas in the arid, currently bare-soil regions, the annual Northern Hemisphere surface temperature increases by 0.7oC (by 0.6oC in July ), the surface temperature over land in the 20-30oN zone increases by 0.9oC in both the annual and the July means, and the land-ocean annual temperature contrast in this zone increases by 0.25oC (0.2oC in July). These results represent the combined influence of the reduction in the surface albedo and of the increase in the coefficient of turbulent heat transfer. In the desert-belt zones, the increase in the transfer coefficient sharply reduces the land temperature and the land-ocean temperature contrast from the values produced by the albedo change alone. This reduction must be attributed to the increased land-to-ocean circulation (which our model does not evaluate ex-plicitly). Considering that a stronger circulation (resulting from land-ocean temperature contrast) generally forces a higher rainfall, the vegetation which emerged in the arid regions during the post-glacial optimum should be consid-ered a. significant positive feedback towards a still warmer, and also a more pluvial, climate. Our study may have im-plications for the 21st century, if the global warming expected from the enhanced greenhouse effects is accompanied by increased precipitation over the continents.     

General circulation model experiments with surface albedo changes

In 1975, Charney proposed a biogeophysical feedback mechanism to partly explain the droughts that occur in desert border areas. He showed that a perturbation of albedo (due to a natural or anthropogenic decrease of vegetation) can be unstable and lead to a variation of precipitation in the region where albedo is changed.Several numerical experiments have been achieved with general circulation models to study the sensitivity of climate to surface albedo. We compare the GLAS and LMD model results for the Sahel. For all models, rainfall decreases when albedo increases and net radiative heating of soil decreases. We show the variations of circulation simulated by the LMD model that we obtain when albedo is increased. These changes are compared to the weakening of Easterly Jet at 200 mb observed during dry years.     

Changes in fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum: an assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data

Fire activity has varied globally and continuously since the last glacial maximum (LGM) in response to long-term changes in global climate and shorter-term regional changes in climate, vegetation, and human land use. We have synthesized sedimentary charcoal records of biomass burning since the LGM and present global maps showing changes in fire activity for time slices during the past 21,000 years (as differences in charcoal accumulation values compared to pre-industrial). There is strong broad-scale coherence in fire activity after the LGM, but spatial heterogeneity in the signals increases thereafter. In North America, Europe and southern South America, charcoal records indicate less-than-present fire activity during the deglacial period, from 21,000 to ∼11,000 cal yr BP. In contrast, the tropical latitudes of South America and Africa show greater-than-present fire activity from ∼19,000 to ∼17,000 cal yr BP and most sites from Indochina and Australia show greater-than-present fire activity from 16,000 to ∼13,000 cal yr BP. Many sites indicate greater-than-present or near-present activity during the Holocene with the exception of eastern North America and eastern Asia from 8,000 to ∼3,000 cal yr BP, Indonesia and Australia from 11,000 to 4,000 cal yr BP, and southern South America from 6,000 to 3,000 cal yr BP where fire activity was less than present. Regional coherence in the patterns of change in fire activity was evident throughout the post-glacial period. These complex patterns can largely be explained in terms of large-scale climate controls modulated by local changes in vegetation and fuel load. The readers are requested to refer to the section “List of contributors” for the complete list of author affiliation details.     

The climatic impact of a Sonoran vegetation discontinuity

The international fence separating Mexico and the United States is marked by a sharp vegetation discontinuity in the Sonoran Desert. Due to overgrazing, the Mexican side of the border has shorter grasses, more bare soil, and a higher albedo compared to the adjacent lands in the United States. In this investigation, long-term climate records are analyzed to determine the magnitude of any climatic differences associated with the spatial variation in the vegetation regime. The results suggest that summertime maximum temperatures recorded at the Mexican stations are significantly higher (by nearly 2.5 °C) than the Arizona stations when latitude and elevation are held constant. When only elevation is held constant, the difference in the maximum temperature jumps to approximately 4 dgC. No discernible changes in monthly and/or summer season precipitation could be identified in the records. These findings add support to other site-specific field measurements suggesting warming in desert areas where vegetation cover is decreasing and albedo is increasing.     

The impact of land cover change on the atmospheric circulation

 The NCAR Community Climate Model (version 3), coupled to the Biosphere Atmosphere Transfer scheme and a mixed layer ocean model is used to investigate the impact on the climate of a conservative change from natural to present land cover. Natural vegetation cover was obtained from an ecophysiologically constrained biome model. The current vegetation cover was obtained by perturbing the natural cover from forest to grass over areas where land cover has been observed to change. Simulations were performed for 17 years for each case (results from the last 15 years are presented here). We find that land cover changes, largely constrained to the tropics, SE Asia, North America and Europe, cause statistically significant changes in regional temperature and precipitation but cause no impact on the globally averaged temperature or precipitation. The perturbation in land cover in the tropics and SE Asia teleconnect to higher latitudes by changing the position and strength of key elements of the general circulation (the Hadley and Walker circulations). Many of the areas where statistically significant changes occur are remote from the location of land cover change. Historical land cover change is not typically included in transitory climate simulations, and it may be that the simulation of the patterns of temperature change over the twentieth century by climate models will be further improved by taking it into account. Received: 27 May 1999 / Accepted: July 2000     

大规模植被恢复对东亚气候的可能影响

利用动态植被模型CLM4-CNDV、区域气候模式RegCM4.6-CLM3.5和全球气候模式CAM4探究了当前气候状态下东亚区域可能的自然植被分布以及自然植被恢复对东亚区域气候产生的可能影响。结果表明,当前气候条件下,农作物区可能分布的自然植被为:蒙古高原以北、东北、华北平原和四川盆地的部分地区为裸土;东亚东南部及蒙古高原以北地区主要为林地;四川盆地及山东半岛主要为灌木;东北地区、东南沿海和长江中下游地区主要为草地。将农作物区恢复为自然植被后将对区域气候产生显著影响。其中,东亚东部大部分地区由于植被叶面积指数增加引起的蒸散发增强,使得夏季降水增加且温度降低显著;华北、四川盆地和广东中部平原地区植被叶面积指数减小,伴随区域内夏季降水显著减少且温度升高。而蒙古高原地区的气候变化不仅受区域内植被覆盖变化影响,还可能与印度地区和我国东南部植被变化引起的大气环流调整有关,使得蒙古高原西部冬季温度降低,而其东部夏季温度升高,同时夏季降水减少显著。研究所采用的试验方案是在相对理想的情况下进行的,但其结果为进一步区分不同地区植被覆盖变化的影响提供一定的参考。     

地表反照率的改变影响夏季北非副热带高压的数值模拟

利用 LASG L 9R1 5AGCM设计了两组不同地表反照率的数值试验。通过分析其夏季平均气候的差异来考察地表反照率改变对夏季北非副高的影响。结果表明 ,当北非地表反照率增大时 ,由于地面接收到的净辐射减少 ,地面温度降低 ,底层大气的感热加热减弱 ,抑制了局地的对流和降水 ,相应的对流层中层的凝结加热也减弱。这种中、低层的冷却强迫出高空的异常辐合与低空的异常辐散 ,导致北非地区下沉运动增强 ,从而加强了北非副高。另外 ,这种北非地区的环流异常 ,通过辐散风环流加强了南亚高空的辐散 ,在一定程度上加强了南亚高压。     

Influence of vegetation changes during the Last Glacial Maximum using the BMRC atmospheric general circulation model

 The influence of different vegetation distributions on the atmospheric circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 000 years before present) is investigated. The atmospheric general circulation model of the Bureau of Meteorology Research Center was run using a modern vegetation and in a second experiment with a vegetation reconstruction for the LGM. It is found that a change from conifer to desert and tundra causes an additional LGM cooling of 1–2 °C in Western Europe, up to −4 °C in North America and −6 °C in Siberia. An expansion of dryland vegetation causes an additional annual cooling of 1–2 °C for Australia and northern Africa. On the other hand, an increase of temperature (2 °C) is found in Alaska due to changes in circulation. In the equatorial region the LGM vegetation leads to an increased modelled temperature of 0.5–1.5 °C and decreased precipitation (30%) over land due to a reduction of the tropical rainforest, mainly in Indonesia, where the reduction of precipitation over land is associated with an increase of precipitation of 30% over the western Pacific. Received: 15 December 1999 / Accepted: 10 January 2001     

Simulated impact of vegetation on climate across the North American monsoon region in CCSM3.5

The influence of prescribed changes in vegetation on the climate of the North American monsoon region is examined using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model Version 3.5 (NCAR CCSM3.5). Initial value ensemble experiments are performed in which the vegetation cover fraction over the North American monsoon region is reduced by 0.2 and the intra-annual climatic response is assessed probabilistically in each one-year ensemble experiment. Changes in the surface radiation budget include decreases in sensible and latent heat fluxes and increases in upward longwave and downward shortwave radiation fluxes, with small net changes in surface albedo. The climatic responses to reduced vegetation cover fraction include year-round increases in ground and surface air temperature, a dampened hydrologic cycle with decreased springtime evaporation, springtime and autumnal precipitation, and autumnal cloud cover, and enhanced atmospheric subsidence in late autumn. Decreased vegetation shifts the monsoon season over the Southwest United States earlier in the year. Within the North American monsoon region, the most robust vegetation feedbacks to climate are found over woody landscapes.     

1982-2012年北半球荒漠草原过渡带植被物候特征及其与气候因子的关系

基于GIMMS（global inventory modeling and mapping studies）NDVI 3g数据,在提取北半球荒漠草原过渡带每年植被物候期的基础上,研究了1982-2012年物候期的时间演化趋势及空间分异特征,并结合全球气候再分析资料,探讨了物候变化的气候驱动因素。结果表明：在1998年之前,荒漠草原过渡带植被物候期变化地区间差异较大,而在1998年之后,北半球荒漠草原过渡带生长季结束期整体提前,平均提前0.41 d/a;同时,除萨赫勒以外的各地区植被生长季长度普遍缩短,平均缩短0.88 d/a。植被物候期与气候因子的相关分析发现,荒漠草原过渡带植被物候变化受气候变化影响显著,且空间差异明显。在中高纬度地区,气温是限制植被活动的关键因子,温度升高可以促进生长季开始期的提前,而降水增加则会妨碍植被生长;在较低纬度地区,水分是影响植被活动的关键因素,高温造成的水分亏缺会导致植被生长季缩短。从植被物候期对各气候因子响应的时滞性来看,荒漠草原过渡带植被的物候期对气温变化的响应最迅速,对蒸散的响应存在一定的滞后性,而对降水的响应不存在时滞差异。     

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF VEGETATION COVER FACTOR ON BOUNDARY LAYER CLIMATE IN SEMI-ARID REGION

A numerical model has been developed for simulating land-surface processes and atmosphericboundary layer climate of vegetation and desert in semi-arid region.Dynamically,thermal andhydrological processes take place in the atmospheric boundary layer.Vegetation and surface layerof soil are included in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere coupled system,in which,vegetation isconsidered as a horizontally uniform layer,soil is divided into 13 layers and the horizontaldifferences of variables in the system are neglected.The influence of local boundary layer climateby vegetation cover factor is simulated with the coupled model in the semi-arid region of NorthwestChina (around 38°N,105°E).Results indicate that due to significant differences of water andenergy budgets in vegetation and desert region,the air is colder and wetter over the vegetation andcorrespondingly an obvious local circulation in the lower atmosphere is formed.Simulating results also show that maximum updraft and downdraft occur around thevegetation-desert marginal area,where the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of PBL(Planetary Boundary Layer) are uncontinuous.It is stronger at daytime,weaker and reverse atnighttime.In the simulation,the moisture inversion phenomena are analyzed.Finally.theinfluences of vegetation cover factor exchange on local boundary layer climate are simulated.Thesimulating results bring to light that water may be conserved and improved by developing treeplanting and afforestation,and improving cover factor of vegetation in local ecoenvironment,andthis is an important way of transforming local climate in arid and semi-arid area.Results indicatethat the coupled model can be used to study the soil-vegetation-atmosphere interaction and localboundary layer climate.