Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

Human activities have altered the distribution and quality of terrestrial ecosystems. Future demands for goods and services from terrestrial ecosystems will occur in a world experiencing human-induced climate change. In this study, we characterize the range in response of unmanaged ecosystems in the conterminous U.S. to 12 climate change scenarios. We obtained this response by simulating the climatically induced shifts in net primary productivity and geographical distribution of major biomes in the conterminous U.S. with the BIOME 3 model. BIOME 3 captured well the potential distribution of major biomes across the U.S. under baseline (current) climate. BIOME 3 also reproduced the general trends of observed net primary production (NPP) acceptably. The NPP projections were reasonable for forests, but not for grasslands where the simulated values were always greater than those observed. Changes in NPP would be most severe under the BMRC climate change scenario in which severe changes in regional temperatures are projected. Under the UIUC and UIUC + Sulfate scenarios, NPP generally increases, especially in the West where increases in precipitation are projected to be greatest. A CO₂-fertilization effect either amplified increases or alleviated losses in modeled NPP. Changes in NPP were also associated with changes in the geographic distribution of major biomes. Temperate/boreal mixed forests would cover less land in the U.S. under most of the climate change scenarios examined. Conversely, the temperate conifer and temperate deciduous forests would increase in areal extent under the UIUC and UIUC + Sulfate scenarios. The Arid Shrubland/Steppe would spread significantly across the southwest U.S. under the BMRC scenario. A map overlay of the simulated regions that would lose or gain capacity to produce corn and wheat on top of the projected distribution of natural ecosystems under the BMRC and UIUC scenarios (Global mean temperature increase of +2.5 °C, no CO₂ effect) helped identify areas where natural and managed ecosystems could contract or expand. The methods and models employed here are useful in identifying; (a) the range in response of unmanaged ecosystem in the U.S. to climate change and (b) the areas of the country where, for a particular scenario of climate change, land cover changes would be most likely.     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

Global climate change will impact the hydrologic cycle by increasing the capacity of the atmosphere to hold moisture. Anticipated impacts are generally increased evaporation at low latitudes and increased precipitation at middle and high latitudes. General Circulation Models (GCMs) used to simulate climate disagree on whether the U.S. as a whole and its constituent regions will receive more or less precipitation as global warming occurs. The impacts on specific regions will depend on changes in weather patterns and are certain to be complex. Here we apply the suite of 12 potential climate change scenarios, previously described in Part 1, to the Hydrologic Unit Model of the United States (HUMUS) to simulate water supply in the conterminous United States in reference to a baseline scenario. We examine the sufficiency of this water supply to meet changing demands of irrigated agriculture. The changes in water supply driven by changes in climate will likely be most consequential in the semi-arid western parts of the country where water yield is currently scarce and the resource is intensively managed. Changes of greater than ±50% with respect to present day water yield are projected in parts of the Midwest and Southwest U.S. Interannual variability in the water supply is likely to increase where conditions become drier and to decrease under wetter conditions.     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

PNNLs Agriculture and Land Use is used to demonstrate the impact of potential changes in climate on agricultural production and land use in the United States. AgLU simulates production of four crop types in several world regions, in 15-yr time steps from 1990 to 2095. Changes in yield of major field crops in the United States, for 12 climate scenarios, are obtained from simulations of the EPIC crop growth model. Results from the HUMUS model are used to constrain crop irrigation, and BIOME3 model is used to simulate productivity of unmanaged ecosystems. Assumptions about changes in agricultural productivity outside the United States are treated on a scenario basis, either responding in the same way as in the United States, or not responding to climate.     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

Here we simulate dryland agriculture in the United States in order to assess potential future agricultural production under a set of general circulation model (GCM)-based climate change scenarios. The total national production of three major grain crops—corn, soybeans, and winter wheat—and two forage crops—alfalfa and clover hay—is calculated for the actual present day core production area (CPA) of each of these crops. In general, higher global mean temperature (GMT) reduces production and higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO₂]) increases production. Depending on the climatic change scenarios employed overall national production of the crops studied changes by up to plus or minus 25% from present-day levels. Impacts are more significant regionally, with crop production varying by greater than ±50% from baseline levels. Analysis of currently possible production areas (CPPAs) for each crop indicates that the regions most likely to be affected by climate change are those on the margins of the areas in which they are currently grown. Crop yield variability was found to be primarily influenced by local weather and geographic features rather than by large-scale changes in climate patterns and atmospheric composition. Future US agronomic potential will be significantly affected by the changes in climate projected here. The nature of the crop response will depend primarily on to what extent precipitation patterns change and also on the degree of warming experienced.     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and contribute to rising global temperatures, it is important to examine how derivative changes in climate may affect natural and managed ecosystems. In this series of papers, we study the impacts of climate change on agriculture, water resources and natural ecosystems in the conterminous United States using twelve scenarios derived from General Circulation Model (GCM) projections to drive biophysical impact models. These scenarios are described in this paper. The scenarios are first put into the context of recent work on climate-change by the IPCC for the 21st century and span two levels of global-mean temperature change and three sets of spatial patterns of change derived from GCM results. In addition, the effect of either the presence or absence of a CO₂ fertilization effect on vegetation is examined by using two levels of atmospheric CO₂ concentration as a proxy variable. Results from three GCM experiments were used to produce different regional patterns of climate change. The three regional patterns for the conterminous United States range from: an increase in temperature above the global-mean level along with a significant decline in precipitation; temperature increases in line with the global-mean with an average increase in precipitation; and, with a sulfate aerosol effect added to in the same model, temperature increases that are lower than the global-mean. The resulting set of scenarios span a wide range of potential climate changes and allows examination of the relative importance of global-mean temperature change, regional climate patterns, aerosol cooling, and CO₂ fertilization effects.     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses accumulate in the atmosphere and contribute to rising global temperatures, it is important to examine how a changing climate may affect natural and managed ecosystems. In this series of papers, we study the impacts of climate change on agriculture, water resources and natural ecosystems in the General Circulation Model (GCM)-derived climate change projections, described in Part 1, to drive the crop production and water resource models EPIC (Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator) and HUMUS (Hydrologic Unit Model of the United States). These models are described and validated in this paper using historical crop yields and streamflow data in the conterminous United States in order to establish their ability to accurately simulate historical crop and water conditions and their capability to simulate crop and water response to the extreme climate conditions predicted by GCMs. EPIC simulated grain and forage crop yields are compared with historical crop yields from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and with yields from agricultural experiments. EPIC crop yields correspond more closely with USDA historical county yields than with the higher yields from intensively managed agricultural experiments. The HUMUS model was validated by comparing the simulated water yield from each hydrologic basin with estimates of natural streamflow made by the US Geological Survey. This comparison shows that the model is able to reproduce significant observed relationships and capture major trends in water resources timing and distribution across the country.     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment Summary

This special issue of Climatic Change describes an effort to improve methodology for integrated assessment of impacts and consequences of climatic change. Highlights of the seven foregoing Parts (papers) that constitute this special issue are summarized here. The methodology developed involves construction of scenarios of climate change that are used to drive individual sectoral models for simulating impacts on crop production, irrigation demand, water supply and change in productivity and geography of unmanaged ecosystems. Economic impacts of the changes predicted by integrating the results of the several sectoral simulation models are calculated through an agricultural land-use model. While these analyses were conducted for the conterminous United States alone, their global implications are also considered in this summary as is the need for further improvements in integrated assessment methodology.     

An Assessment of Integrated Climate Change Impacts on the Agricultural Economy of Egypt

This study used a quadratic programming sector model to assess the integrated impacts of climate change on the agricultural economy of Egypt. Results from a dynamic global food trade model were used to update the Egyptian sector model and included socio-economic trends and world market prices of agricultural goods. In addition, the impacts of climate change from three bio-physical sectors – water resources, crop yields, and land resources – were used as inputs to the economic model. The climate change scenarios generally had minor impacts on aggregated economic welfare (sum of Consumer and Producer Surplus or CPS), with the largest reduction of approximately 6 percent. In some climate change scenarios, CPS slightly improved or remained unchanged. These scenarios generally benefited consumers more than producers, as world market conditions reduced the revenue generating capacity of Egyptian agricultural exporters but decreased the costs of imports. Despite increased water availability and only moderate yield declines, several climate change scenarios showed producers being negatively affected by climate change. The analysis supported the hypothesis that smaller food importing countries are at a greater risk to climate change, and impacts could have as much to do with changes in world markets as with changes in local and regional biophysical systems and shifts in the national agricultural economy.     

Investigating Climate Change Impacts and Thresholds: An Application of the CLIMPACTS Integrated Assessment Model for New Zealand Agriculture

The determination of `critical thresholds'is an essential task for informed policydecisions on establishing greenhouse gas emissiontargets. This paper presents a framework fordetermining critical thresholds for New Zealandagriculture, focusing on three agriculturalcrops – kiwifruit, grain maize, andPaspalum dilatatum – as exemplars for the fruitproduction, arable cropping and dairy productionindustries in New Zealand. The approach is based onthe application of a country-scale, integratedassessment model, called CLIMPACTS. The CLIMPACTSsystem contains a climate change scenario generator,climate and land data, and sectoral impact models. Importantly, CLIMPACTS allows time-dependentassessments of climate change and its effects, whichfacilitates the identification and examination of thresholds, which largely relate to spatial changes, over time, in regions of economic importance for these crops. However, whether such thresholds are `critical' for New Zealand cannot currently be addressed by the CLIMPACTS model. The determination of `criticality' requires a fully integrated assessment in which the social, economic, and environmental costs and risks associated with these thresholds are comprehensively evaluated.     

气候变化2007:气候变化影响、适应和脆弱性——IPCC第2工作组第4次评估报告主要结论介绍

阐述了政府间气候变化专门委员会(IPCC)第2工作组第四次评估中与决策相关的重要发现。本次评估体现了当前关于气候变化对自然、管理和人类系统的影响、这些系统的适应能力及脆弱性方面的科学认识。该评估基于此前IPCC的评估,并吸收了第3次评估以来的新认识。评估报告认为:从所有大陆和多数海洋得到的观测证据表明,许多自然系统正在受到区域气候变化,特别是温度升高的影响;人为增暖可能已对许多自然和生物系统产生可辨别的影响;气候变化对自然和人类环境所造成的其他影响清晰可辨。当前关于未来气候变化影响的认识,可以更详细地评估未来气候对各类系统和部门,以及对世界各大区域的影响,也可以对全球升温的影响进行估算,预估极端天气气候所带来的影响。必须采取更广泛的适应措施以应对气候变化所造成的影响,可持续发展能够降低对气候变化的脆弱性,兼顾适应和减缓的措施,能够减低气候变化相关风险。     

Assessing regional impacts and adaptation strategies for climate change: the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment

Climate change in the twenty-first century will strongly affect the processes that define natural and human systems. The Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment (WACCIA) was intended to identify the nature and effects of climate change on natural and human resources in Washington State over the next century. The assessment focused on eight sectors that were identified as being potentially most climate sensitive: agriculture, energy, salmon, urban stormwater infrastructure, forests, human health, coasts, and water resources. Most of these sectors are sensitive in one way or another to water availability. While water is generally abundant in the state under current climate conditions, its availability is highly variable in space and time, and these variations are expected to change as the climate warms. Here we summarize the results of the WACCIA and identify uncertainties and common mechanisms that relate many of the impacts. We also address cross-sectoral sensitivities, vulnerabilities, and adaptation strategies.     

A Regional, Multi-sectoral And Integrated Assessment Of The Impacts Of Climate And Socio-economic Change In The Uk

Policy makers and stakeholders are increasingly demanding impact assessments which produce policy-relevant guidance on the local impacts of global climate change. The ‘Regional Climate Change Impact and Response Studies in East Anglia and North West England’ (RegIS) study developed a methodology for stakeholder-led, regional climate change impact assessment that explicitly evaluated local and regional (sub-national) scale impacts and adaptation options, and cross-sectoral interactions between four major sectors driving landscape change (agriculture, biodiversity, coasts and floodplains and water resources). The ‘Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response’ (DPSIR) approach provided a structure for linking the modelling and scenario techniques. A 5 × 5 km grid was chosen for numerical modelling input (climate and socio-economic scenarios) and output, as a compromise between the climate scenario resolution (10 × 10 km) and the detailed spatial resolution output desired by stakeholders. Fundamental methodological issues have been raised by RegIS which reflect the difficulty of multi-sectoral modelling studies at local scales. In particular, the role of scenarios, error propagation in linked models, model validity, transparency and transportability as well as the use of integrated assessment to evaluate adaptation options to climate change are examined. Integrated assessments will provide new insights which will compliment those derived by more detailed sectoral assessments.     

风电场对气候变化影响研究进展

综述了国际评估风电场对局地和全球气候变化的短期和较长期的可能影响,并且将其影响与人类排放的影响作简单的对比.大量的观测和数值模拟研究表明,风电场的运行明显减小下游风速,同时随局地近地层稳定度的不同也造成下游温度明显上升或下降.一些数值模拟研究表明,如果全球建立大量大型风电场,例如假定全球使用风能占总能源10％以上,即全...     

土地利用变化对气候影响的研究进展

为满足人类对食物、纤维、水和居住地的需求,全球土地利用格局发生了巨大的变化,IPCC 第四次评估报告（IPCC,2007）指出土地利用变化是人类影响气候的重要强迫之一。土地利用变化对气候的影响分为生物地球物理作用和生物地球化学作用。分别对有关生物地球物理作用和生物地球化学作用的研究进展以及研究热点进行了综述;并从定量评估两者对气候影响的相对贡献以及两者共同效应的角度,回顾了辐射强迫计算和耦合模式数值模拟两种方法的研究进展,及其在森林恢复、人工造林以及碳封存等气候变化应对措施可行性评估中的应用。最后分析和展望了当前土地利用变化对气候影响相关研究中的不确定性以及未来发展方向。     

气候变化影响的最新认知

政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）第二工作组于2007年4月6日正式发布了第四次评估报告,该报告客观、全面而审慎地评估了气候变化已有的和未来的可能影响。现有观测证据表明,人为增暖可能已对许多自然和生物系统产生了可辨别的影响,但由于适应以及非气候因子的作用,许多影响还难以辨别。21世纪中期,某些中纬度和热带干旱地区年平均河流径流量和可用水量会减少10%～30%;如果全球平均温度增幅超过1.5～2.5℃,目前所评估的20%～30%动植物物种可能面临灭绝的风险会增大;从全球角度看,局地平均温度增加1～3℃,预计粮食生产潜力会增加,但若超过这一范围,则会减少。兼顾适应和减缓的措施能够降低气候变化相关风险。     

Climate Change Impacts on Urban Flooding

This paper estimates changes in thepotential damage of flood events caused by increasesof CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere. It ispresented in two parts: 1. the modelling of floodfrequency and magnitude under global warming andassociated rainfall intensities and 2. the use ofgreenhouse flood data to assess changes in thevulnerability of flood prone urban areas, expressingthese in terms of direct losses.Three case studies were selected: theHawkesbury–Nepean corridor, the Queanbeyan and UpperParramatta Rivers. All three catchments are located insoutheastern Australia, near Sydney and Canberra.These were chosen because each had detailed buildingdata bases available and the localities are situatedon rivers that vary in catchment size andcharacteristics. All fall within a region that willexperience similar climate change under the availablegreenhouse scenarios. The GCMs' slab model scenariosof climate change in 2030 and 2070 will cause onlyminor changes to urban flood damage but the doubleCO₂ scenarios estimated using the StochasticWeather Generator technique will lead to significantincreases in building damage.For all the case studies, the hydrological modellingindicates that there will be increases in themagnitude and frequency of flood events under thedouble CO₂ conditions although these vary fromplace to place. However, the overall pattern of changeis that for the Upper Parramatta River the 1 in 100-year flood under currentconditions becomes the 1 in44-year event, the 1 in 35-year flood for theHawkesbury–Nepean and the 1 in 10 for Queanbeyan andCanberra. This indicates the importance of usingrainfall-runoff modelling in order to estimate changesin flood frequencies in catchments with differentphysical characteristics.     

Country-Specific Market Impacts of Climate Change

We develop a new climate-impact model, theGlobal Impact Model (GIM), which combines futurescenarios, detailed spatial simulations by generalcirculation models (GCMs), sectoral features,climate-response functions, and adaptation to generatecountry-specific impacts by market sector. Estimatesare made for three future scenarios, two GCMs, andtwo climate-response functions – a reduced-form modeland a cross-sectional model. Combining empiricallybased response functions, sectoral data by country,and careful climate forecasts gives analysts a morepowerful tool for estimating market impacts. GIMpredicts that country specific results vary, implyingthat research in this area is likely to bepolicy-relevant.     

全球气候变化对我国气候安全影响的思考

依据政府间气候变化专门委员会 (IPCC) 第5次评估报告以及国内相关科学研究成果,使用最新的观测资料凝练了对全球气候变化的有关认识;从极端天气气候事件和气候承载力角度,分析了气候变化给我国带来的气候风险。研究发现:1961—2015年我国平均高温日数增加了28.4%,暴雨日数增加了8.2%。21世纪以来,登陆我国热带气旋的强度明显增加。在全球气候变暖的背景下,我国气候承载力将发生明显变化,未来面临的气候风险将加大。因此,保障我国气候安全,需要科学认识气候,提高气候风险意识; 主动适应气候,提高应对极端事件能力;努力保护气候,减缓气候变化的影响。     

Climate Change and Agricultural Soils: Impacts and Adaptation

This article reviews the current state of knowledge on the response of soils to climate change, and the implications such changes have for agriculture. The article is based on the material reported in the IPCC second assessment report (Watson et al., 1996) and updated with more recent information, where appropriate. The review highlights the importance of understanding the dynamics of soil processes when addressing climate change impacts on agriculture. Rapid soil responses to climate change (e.g. soil water, organic carbon and erodibility) have been widely investigated and reported in the literature. However, it is important that longer-term processes (e.g. pedogenesis) are not ignored by the research community because these have potentially important implications for long-term agricultural land use and are often irreversible. The use of good land management practices, as currently understood, provides the best strategy for adaptation to the impact of climate change on soils. However, it appears likely that farmers will need to carefully reconsider their management options, and land use change is likely to result from different crop selections that are more appropriate to the changing conditions. Perhaps the greatest impact of climate change on soils will arise from climate-induced changes in land use and management.