Spatial and Temporal Variability in the Growth and Climate Response of Treeline Trees in Alaska

In this study, we investigated the response of trees growing at the cold margins of the boreal forest to climate variation in the 20th century. Working at eight sites at and near alpine and arctic treeline in three regions in Alaska, we compared tree growth (from measured tree ring-widths) to historical climate data to document how growth has responded to climate variation in the 20th century. We found that there was substantial regional variability in response to climate variation. Contrary to our expectations, we found that after 1950 warmer temperatures were associated with decreased tree growth in all but the wettest region, the Alaska Range. Although tree growth increased from 1900–1950 at almost all sites, significant declines in tree growth were common after 1950 in all but the Alaska Range sites. We also found that there was substantial variability in response to climate variation according to distance to treeline. Inverse growth responses to temperature were more common at sites below the forest margin than at sites at the forest margin. Together, these results suggest that inverse responses to temperature are widespread, affecting even the coldest parts of the boreal forest. Even in such close proximity to treeline, warm temperatures after 1950 have been associated with reduced tree growth. Growth declines were most common in the warmer and drier sites, and thus support the hypothesis that drought-stress may accompany increased warming in the boreal forest.     

Key factors affecting the future provision of tree-based forest ecosystem goods and services

The continuous provisioning of forest ecosystem goods and services (EGS) is of considerable interest to society. To provide insights on how much EGS provision will change with a changing climate and which factors will influence this change the most, we simulated forest stands on six climatically different sites in Central Europe under several scenarios of species diversity, management, and climate change. We evaluated the influence of these factors on the provision of a range of tree-based EGS, represented by harvested basal area, total biomass, stand diversity, and productivity. The most influential factor was species diversity, with diverse forest stands showing a lower sensitivity to climate change than monocultures. Management mainly influenced biomass, with the most intensively managed stands retaining more of their original biomass than others. All three climate-change scenarios yielded very similar results. We showed that (1) only few factor combinations perform worse under climate-change conditions than others, (2) diversity aspects are important for adaptive management measures, but for some indicators, management may be more important than diversity, and (3) at locations subject to increasing drought, the future provision of EGS may decrease regardless of the factor combination. This quantitative evaluation of the influence of different factors on changes in the provision of forest EGS with climate change represents an important step towards the design of more focused adaptation strategies and highlights key factors that should be considered in simulation studies under climate change.     

Climate Variability and Change: Past, Present and Future – An Overview

Prior to the 20th century Northern Hemisphere average surface air temperatures have varied in the order of 0.5 ^°C back to AD 1000. Various climate reconstructions indicate that slow cooling took place until the beginning of the 20th century. Subsequently, global-average surface air temperature increased by about 0.6 °C with the 1990s being the warmest decade on record. The pattern of warming has been greatest over mid-latitude northern continents in the latter part of the century. At the same time the frequency of air frosts has decreased over many land areas, and there has been a drying in the tropics and sub-tropics. The late 20th century changes have been attributed to global warming because of increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activities. Underneath these trends is that of decadal scale variability in the Pacific basin at least induced by the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), which causes decadal changes in climate averages. On interannnual timescales El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) causes much variability throughout many tropical and subtropical regions and some mid-latitude areas. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) provides climate perturbations over Europe and northern Africa. During the course of the 21st century global-average surface temperatures are very likely to increase by 2 to 4.5 ^°C as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere increase. At the same time there will be changes in precipitation, and climate extremes such as hot days, heavy rainfall and drought are expected to increase in many areas. The combination of global warming, superimposed on decadal climate variability (IPO) and interannual fluctuations (ENSO, NAO) are expected lead to a century of increasing climate variability and change that will be unprecedented in the history of human settlement. Although the changes of the past and present have stressed food and fibre production at times, the 21st century changes will be extremely challenging to agriculture and forestry.     

Detection of Variations in Air Temperature at Different Time Scales During the Period 1889–1998 at Firenze, Italy

In an attempt to contribute to studies on global climatic change, 110 years of temperature data for Firenze, Italy, were analysed. Means and trends of annual and monthly temperatures (minimum, maximum and average) were analysed at three different time scales: short (20 years), medium (36–38 years) and long (55 years). Comparative changes in extreme events viz. frosts in the first and second parts of the 20th century were also analysed. At short time scales, climatic change was found in minimum and average temperatures but not in maximum temperatures. At all three time scales, the annual means of minimum, maximum and average temperatures were significantly warmer in the last part than in the early part of the 20th century. The monthly mean temperatures showed significant warming of winter months. Over the last four decades, minimum, maximum and average temperatures had warmed by 0.4, 0.43 and 0.4 ∘C per decade, respectively, and if this trend continues, they will be warmer by 4 ∘C by the end of the 21st century. The significant decline in days with subzero temperatures and frosts in the last half of the 20th century, further substantiated the occurrence of climate change at this site.     

Multiproxy reconstructions of climate for three sites in the Canadian High Arctic using Cassiope tetragona

We developed calibration models and reconstructed climate for sites in the central and eastern Canadian High Arctic using dendroclimatological and stable isotope analysis techniques on the dwarf-shrub, Cassiope tetragona. Our results may suggest complex temporal and spatial patterns of climate change in the region over the past century. For sites on Bathurst and Devon Islands, we reconstructed fall mean and June–July mean temperature using multiple linear regression analysis that explained 54?% and 40?% of the variance, respectively. The predictor variables included annual growth, annual production of leaves, flower buds and annual δ13C values for the Bathurst Island model, and annual growth and δ13C values for the Devon Island model. Both models revealed warmer than average temperatures throughout the mid-20th century, followed by a cooling trend from the early 1960s and mid-1970s at the Devon and Bathurst Island sites, respectively. Temperatures remained cool until the early 1980s and then increased until 1998/1999 at both sites. Our models are supported by other paleoclimate proxies and the instrumental record from the Canadian Arctic. For sites on Axel Heiberg and Bathurst Islands, we developed models using multivariate regresssion for February and March total precipitation that explained 44?% and 42?% of the variance, respectively. The Axel Heiberg Island model included annual production of flowers and flower buds, as well as annual δ13C values as predictor variables, while the Bathurst Island model only included the annual production of flower buds as a predictor. Both models showed lower than average precipitation from the early to mid-1900s, followed by increasing precipitation from the late 1980s to 1998/1999. Our precipitation models, supported by instrumental and proxy data, suggest a trend of increasing late-winter/early spring precipitation in the late 20th century. The lack of a single detectable climate signal across the study sites suggests local climate, topography, genetic variation and/or ecological conditions may dictate, in part, site responses and result in a heterogeneous climatescape over space and time. Yet, like other arctic paleoclimate proxies, chronology error and temporal discrepancies may complicate our interpretations. However, comparisons with other arctic proxies and the meteorological record suggest our models have also registered a regional climate signal.     

The ‘Little Ice Age’ glacial expansion in western Scandinavia: summer temperature or winter precipitation?

Reconstructing the temporal and spatial climate development on a seasonal basis during the last few centuries, including the ‘Little Ice Age’, may help us better understand modern-day interplay between natural and anthropogenic climate variability. The conventional view of the climate development during the last millennium has been that it followed a sequence of a Medieval Warm Period, a cool ‘Little Ice Age’ and a warming during the later part of the 19th century and in particular during the late 20th/early 21st centuries. However, recent research has challenged this rather simple sequence of climate development. Up to the present, it has been considered most likely that the ‘Little Ice Age’ glacial expansion in western Scandinavia was due to lower summer temperatures. Data presented here, however, indicate that the main cause of the early 18th century glacial advance in western Scandinavia was mild and humid winters associated with increased precipitation and high snowfall on the glaciers.     

Global and hemispheric temperatures revisited

To characterize observed global and hemispheric temperatures, previous studies have proposed two types of data-generating processes, namely, random walk and trend-stationary, offering contrasting views regarding how the climate system works. Here we present an analysis of the time series properties of global and hemispheric temperatures using modern econometric techniques. Results show that: The temperature series can be better described as trend-stationary processes with a one-time permanent shock which cannot be interpreted as part of the natural variability; climate change has affected the mean of the processes but not their variability; it has manifested in two stages in global and Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the last century, while a second stage is yet possible in the Southern Hemisphere; in terms of Article 2 of the Framework Convention on Climate Change it can be argued that significant (dangerous) anthropogenic interference with the climate system has already occurred.     

巴丹吉林南缘近两百年来年降水重建及初步分析

沙漠及其边缘地区生态环境脆弱,对气候变化敏感。但沙漠地区有限的森林资源限制了区域百年到千年尺度上的历史气候变化研究。利用采自巴丹吉林南缘的青海云杉年轮宽度资料,重建了区域近191 a(1815—2005年)来的年降水(前一年7月至当年8月的总降水量)变化序列。重建的相关系数是0.636,方差解释量为40.4%,调整自由度后的解释方差R2adj为0.392。重建结果稳定可靠。分析区域过去年降水变化结果可见,19世纪该区域干湿变化频繁,20世纪前半段主要以干旱为主,干湿转变较少。20世纪20年代的干旱事件在巴丹吉林南缘的干旱持续时间更长。周期分析的结果表明,区域年降水量变化有2 a、4 a、64 a等周期。     

土地利用变化对20世纪中国地区气候干湿变化的影响

利用CMIP5耦合模式历史情景和土地利用情景结果,定量评估了模拟的土地利用变化对20世纪中国地区气候干湿变化的影响。结果表明,土地利用的变化加剧了20世纪中国地区干旱化的进程,其贡献约为1/3。其中,湿润区具有显著变干的趋势,土地利用变化的贡献约为35.4%;半干旱区显著变干,土地利用对半干旱地区变干的贡献不显著;两种情景下干旱区干湿变化都不显著。在土地利用情景下,中国地区土地利用的变化主要表现为一级土地的减少和牧草用地的增加,二者分别从国土面积的72.7%和12.9%(1901年)变为36.0%和41.9%(2004年),且1950年代之后变化速率显著增大。其中大面积显著的变化主要发生在青藏高原、内蒙古以及新疆北部地区,导致这些地区降水减少、温度降低,而降水减少带来的干旱化作用大于温度降低带来的变湿作用。     

全球气候变暖的检测及成因分析

文章对近年来有关全球气候变暖中一些问题的研究进展作了总结，主要结论如下:全球平均地面气温在过去一百年来上升0.5℃。80年代是近百年来最暖的10年。90年代初继续变暖。1990年是近百年来最暖的一年。1991年仅次於1990年。但是近百年气候变暖的幅度仍未超过自然变率。近千年中，中世纪暖期（900—1300年）的温暖程度就可能与20世纪相当，而小冰期（1550—1850年）气温则可能比20世纪低1.0—1.5℃。已经证实，对几十年到几百年尺度，太阳活动强时太阳总辐射也强，但变化幅度尚待进一步确定。强火山爆     

Biogeophysical effects of historical land cover changes simulated by six Earth system models of intermediate complexity

Six Earth system models of intermediate complexity that are able to simulate interaction between atmosphere, ocean, and land surface, were forced with a scenario of land cover changes during the last millennium. In response to historical deforestation of about 18 million sq km, the models simulate a decrease in global mean annual temperature in the range of 0.13–0.25°C. The rate of this cooling accelerated during the 19th century, reached a maximum in the first half of the 20th century, and declined at the end of the 20th century. This trend is explained by temporal and spatial dynamics of land cover changes, as the effect of deforestation on temperature is less pronounced for tropical than for temperate regions, and reforestation in the northern temperate areas during the second part of the 20th century partly offset the cooling trend. In most of the models, land cover changes lead to a decline in annual land evapotranspiration, while seasonal changes are rather equivocal because of spatial shifts in convergence zones. In the future, reforestation might be chosen as an option for the enhancement of terrestrial carbon sequestration. Our study indicates that biogeophysical mechanisms need to be accounted for in the assessment of land management options for climate change mitigation.     

A history of ENSO events since A.D. 1525: implications for future climate change

Reconstructions of past climate are important for providing a historical context for evaluating the nature of 20th century climate change. Here, a number of percentile-based palaeoclimate reconstructions were used to isolate signals of both phases of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). A total of 92 (82) El Niño (La Niña) events were reconstructed since A.D. 1525. Significantly, we introduce the most comprehensive La Niña event record compiled to date. This annual record of ENSO events can now be used for independent verification of climate model simulations, reconstructions of ENSO indices and as a chronological control for archaeologists/social scientists interested in human responses to past climate events. Although extreme ENSO events are seen throughout the 478-year ENSO reconstruction, approximately 43% of extreme and 28% of all protracted ENSO events (i.e. both El Niño and La Niña phase) occur in the 20th century. The post-1940 period alone accounts for 30% of extreme ENSO years observed since A.D. 1525. These results suggest that ENSO may operate differently under natural (pre-industrial) and anthropogenic background states. As evidence of stresses on water supply, agriculture and natural ecosystems caused by climate change strengthens, studies into how ENSO will operate under global warming should be a global research priority.     

Climate change: a new metric to measure changes in the frequency of extreme temperatures using record data

Consensus on global warming is the result of multiple and varying lines of evidence, and one key ramification is the increase in frequency of extreme climate events including record high temperatures. Here we develop a metric—called “record equivalent draws” (RED)—based on record high (low) temperature observations, and show that changes in RED approximate changes in the likelihood of extreme high (low) temperatures. Since we also show that this metric is independent of the specifics of the underlying temperature distributions, RED estimates can be aggregated across different climates to provide a genuinely global assessment of climate change. Using data on monthly average temperatures across the global landmass we find that the frequency of extreme high temperatures increased 10-fold between the first three decades of the last century (1900–1929) and the most recent decade (1999–2008). A more disaggregated analysis shows that the increase in frequency of extreme high temperatures is greater in the tropics than in higher latitudes, a pattern that is not indicated by changes in mean temperature. Our RED estimates also suggest concurrent increases in the frequency of both extreme high and extreme low temperatures during 2002–2008, a period when we observe a plateauing of global mean temperature. Using daily extreme temperature observations, we find that the frequency of extreme high temperatures is greater in the daily minimum temperature time-series compared to the daily maximum temperature time-series. There is no such observable difference in the frequency of extreme low temperatures between the daily minimum and daily maximum.     

How the future of the global forest sink depends on timber demand,forest management,and carbon policies

Deforestation has contributed significantly to net greenhouse gas emissions, but slowing deforestation, regrowing forests and other ecosystem processes have made forests a net sink. Deforestation will still influence future carbon fluxes, but the role of forest growth through aging, management, and other silvicultural inputs on future carbon fluxes are critically important but not always recognized by bookkeeping and integrated assessment models. When projecting the future, it is vital to capture how management processes affect carbon storage in ecosystems and wood products. This study uses multiple global forest sector models to project forest carbon impacts across 81 shared socioeconomic (SSP) and climate mitigation pathway scenarios. We illustrate the importance of modeling management decisions in existing forests in response to changing demands for land resources, wood products and carbon. Although the models vary in key attributes, there is general agreement across a majority of scenarios that the global forest sector could remain a carbon sink in the future, sequestering 1.2–5.8 GtCO2e/yr over the next century. Carbon fluxes in the baseline scenarios that exclude climate mitigation policy ranged from −0.8 to 4.9 GtCO2e/yr, highlighting the strong influence of SSPs on forest sector model estimates. Improved forest management can jointly increase carbon stocks and harvests without expanding forest area, suggesting that carbon fluxes from managed forests systems deserve more careful consideration by the climate policy community.     

Numerical Simulation of Global Temperature Change during the 20th Century with the IAP／LASG GOALS Model

The IAP/LASG GOALS coupled model is used to simulate the climate change during the 20th century using historical greenhouse gases concentrations, the mass mixing ratio of sulfate aerosols simulated by a CTM model, and reconstruction of solar variability spanning the period 1900 to 1997. Four simulations, including a control simulation and three forcing simulations, are conducted. Comparison with the observational record for the period indicates that the three forcing experiments simulate reasonable temporal and spatial distributions of the temperature change. The global warming during the 20th century is caused mainly by increasing greenhouse gas concentration especially since the late 1980s; sulfate aerosols offset a portion of the global warming and the reduction of global temperature is up to about 0.11℃ over the century; additionally, the effect of solar variability is not negligible in the simulation of climate change over the 20th century.     

Recent progress in studies on land cover change and its regional climatic effects over China during historical times

The recent progresses on the reconstruction of historical land cover and the studies on regional climatic effects to temperature,precipitation,and the East Asian Monsoon across China were reviewed.Findings show that the land cover in China has been significantly modified by human activities over the last several thousands years,mainly through cropland expansion and forest clearance.The cropland over traditional Chinese agricultural areas increased from 5.32×105 km2 in the mid-17th century to 8.27×105 km2 in...     

Upper Yellowstone River Flow and Teleconnections with Pacific Basin Climate Variability during the Past Three Centuries

Climate variability, coupled with increasing demand is raising concerns about the sustainability of water resources in the western United States. Tree-ring reconstructions of stream flow that extend the observational record by several centuries provide critical information on the short-term variability and multi-decadal trends in water resources. In this study, precipitation sensitive Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menzeisii) tree ringrecords are used to reconstruct annual flow of the Yellowstone River back to A.D. 1706. Linkages between precipitation in the Greater Yellowstone Region and climate variability in the Pacific basin were incorporated into our model by including indices Pacific Ocean interannual and decadal-scale climatic variability, namely the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Southern Oscillation. The reconstruction indicates that 20th century streamflow is not representative of flow during the previous two centuries. With the exception of the 1930s, streamflow during the 20th century exceeded average flows during the previous 200 years. The drought of the 1930s resulted in the lowest flows during the last three centuries, however, this probably does not represent a worst-case scenario for the Yellowstone as other climate reconstructions indicate more extreme droughts prior to the 18th century.     

Projections of climate change impacts on central America tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforest plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, accounting for a large part of global net primary productivity and contributing to CO₂ sequestration. The objective of this work is to simulate potential changes in the rainforest biome in Central America subject to anthropogenic climate change under two emissions scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The use of a dynamic vegetation model and climate change scenarios is an approach to investigate, assess or anticipate how biomes respond to climate change. In this work, the Inland dynamic vegetation model was driven by the Eta regional climate model simulations. These simulations accept boundary conditions from HadGEM2-ES runs in the two emissions scenarios. The possible consequences of regional climate change on vegetation properties, such as biomass, net primary production and changes in forest extent and distribution, were investigated. The Inland model projections show reductions in tropical forest cover in both scenarios. The reduction of tropical forest cover is greater in RCP8.5. The Inland model projects biomass increases where tropical forest remains due to the CO₂ fertilization effect. The future distribution of predominant vegetation shows that some areas of tropical rainforest in Central America are replaced by savannah and grassland in RCP4.5. Inland projections under both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 show a net primary productivity reduction trend due to significant tropical forest reduction, temperature increase, precipitation reduction and dry spell increments, despite the biomass increases in some areas of Costa Rica and Panama. This study may provide guidance to adaptation studies of climate change impacts on the tropical rainforests in Central America.     

Faster growth in warmer winters for large trees in a Mediterranean-climate ecosystem

Large trees (>76 cm breast-height diameter) are vital components of Sierra Nevada/Cascades mixed-conifer ecosystems because of their fire resistance, ability to sequester large amounts of carbon, and role as preferred habitat for sensitive species such as the California spotted owl. To investigate the likely performance of large trees in a rapidly changing climate, we analyzed growth rings of five conifer species against 20th century climate trends from local weather stations. Over the local station period of record, there were no temporal trends in precipitation, but maximum temperatures increased by 0.10 to 0.13 °C/decade (summer and autumn), and minimum temperatures increased by 0.11 to 0.19 °C/decade in all seasons. All species responded positively to precipitation, but more variation was explained by a significant positive response to minimum winter temperatures. High maximum summer temperature adversely affected growth of two species, and maximum spring temperatures in the year prior to ring formation were negatively associated with growth of one species. The strong coherent response to increasing minimum temperatures bodes well for growth of large trees in Sierra/Cascades region mixed conifer forest under continued climatic warming, but these trees will still be under threat by the increased fire intensity that is a indirect effect of warming.     

基于树轮资料的天山和阿尔泰山历史气候变化序列集成重建研究

为了解天山和阿尔泰山长期气候变化特征，利用基于树轮资料的25条历史气候序列，集成重建了天山和阿尔泰山近150 a的年降水量和夏季气温变化情况。结果显示：20世纪上半叶是天山区域极端气候年份频现时期，而阿尔泰山极端气候年份在20世纪上下半叶分布数量相当且在19世纪下半叶相对较少。两个山系极端低值气候年份的一致性更好,且与部分历史记录吻合。天山在过去150 a内大致经历了5个偏干时期和5个偏湿时期，以及3个偏冷时期和3个偏暖时期；阿尔泰山则经历了5个偏干时期和6个偏湿时期，以及4个偏冷时期和4个偏暖时期。此外，除均存在2～6 a左右的变化周期外，天山年降水量重建序列存在27～30 a和38～39 a的变化周期，夏季平均气温重建序列存在10.5 a、53.5 a和63.7 a的变化周期；阿尔泰山夏季均温存在12.6 a的变化周期。分析表明，ENSO对天山和阿尔泰山年降水量有显著影响，而太阳黑子数与阿尔泰山夏季气温呈滞后负相关关系。