Changes in the seasonal amplitude of northern ecosystem productivity under future global warming

Observations have shown a largely enhanced seasonal amplitude of northern atmospheric CO₂ in the past several decades, and this enhancement is attributable to the increased seasonal amplitude of northern net ecosystem productivity (NEP amplitude). In the future, however, the changes in NEP amplitude are not clear, because of the uncertainties in climate change and vegetation dynamics. This study investigated the changes in NEP amplitude north of 45°N under future global warming by using a dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM). The authors conducted two sets of simulations: a present-day simulation (1981–2000) and future simulations (2081–2100) forced by RCP8.5 outputs from CMIP5. The results showed an overall enhanced northern NEP amplitude under the RCP8.5 scenario because of the increased maximum NEP and the decreased minimum NEP. The increases (decreases) in the maximum (minimum) NEP resulted from stronger (weaker) positive changes in gross primary production (GPP) than ecosystem respiration (ER). Changes in GPP and ER are both dominantly driven by surface air temperature and vegetation dynamics. This work highlights the key role of vegetation dynamics in regulating the northern terrestrial carbon cycle and the importance of including a DGVM in Earth system models.摘要观测显示过去几十年北半球大气二氧化碳季节幅度大幅增加, 这主要是由北半球陆地净生态系统生产力季节幅度的增加所致. 但是, 因为气候变化和植被动态的不确定性, 未来陆地净生态系统生产力季节幅度的变化还很不清楚. 本工作利用全球植被动力学模式研究了全球变暖背景下北纬45°以北陆地净生态系统生产力季节幅度的变化. 作者做了两大类试验: 当代试验 (1981−2000) 和CMIP5 RCP8.5 变暖情景驱动的未来试验 (2081−2100) . 结果显示, 在RCP8.5变暖情景下北半球中高纬陆地净生态系统生产力季节幅度整体增加, 这是因为陆地净生态系统生产力的月最大值增加且月最小值减小. 最大 (最小) 陆地净生态系统生产力的增加 (减小) 是由于总初级生产力的增加强 (弱) 于生态系统总呼吸. 总初级生产力和生态系统总呼吸的变化都主要受地表气温和植被动态的驱动. 本工作强调了植被动态对北半球中高纬陆地生态系统碳循环的关键调制作用, 也强调了在地球系统模式中包含全球植被动力学模式的重要性.     

Interpretation of the positive low-cloud feedback predicted by a climate model under global warming

The response of low-level clouds to climate change has been identified as a major contributor to the uncertainty in climate sensitivity estimates among climate models. By analyzing the behaviour of low-level clouds in a hierarchy of models (coupled ocean-atmosphere model, atmospheric general circulation model, aqua-planet model, single-column model) using the same physical parameterizations, this study proposes an interpretation of the strong positive low-cloud feedback predicted by the IPSL-CM5A climate model under climate change. In a warmer climate, the model predicts an enhanced clear-sky radiative cooling, stronger surface turbulent fluxes, a deepening and a drying of the planetary boundary layer, and a decrease of tropical low-clouds in regimes of weak subsidence. We show that the decrease of low-level clouds critically depends on the change in the vertical advection of moist static energy from the free troposphere to the boundary-layer. This change is dominated by variations in the vertical gradient of moist static energy between the surface and the free troposphere just above the boundary-layer. In a warmer climate, the thermodynamical relationship of Clausius-Clapeyron increases this vertical gradient, and then the import by large-scale subsidence of low moist static energy and dry air into the boundary layer. This results in a decrease of the low-level cloudiness and in a weakening of the radiative cooling of the boundary layer by low-level clouds. The energetic framework proposed in this study might help to interpret inter-model differences in low-cloud feedbacks under climate change.     

全球气候变暖背景下索马里急流变化的预估研究

索马里急流的变化对亚洲季风和气候变动具有重要的影响,未来索马里急流到底会如何演变？如何受全球变暖的影响？针对这个问题,文中利用IPCC第四次评估报告（IPCC AR4）的多个海气耦合模式的模拟结果,评估了多个模式在当前气候（20C3M）条件下对夏季低空索马里急流的模拟能力;预估模式在SRESA2排放情景下对21世纪（2010—2099）的索马里急流变化。研究结果表明,18个模式在现代气候条件下对索马里急流有较好的模拟能力;18个模式的集合平均结果预测夏季索马里低空急流在21世纪的变化过程是：初期（2010—2040）增强至减弱,中期（2050—2060）增加至最强,末期（2070—2090）减至最弱。与现代气候条件模拟结果相比,夏季索马里低空急流在未来气候变暖背景条件下是趋于减弱的过程,在21世纪末期最弱。研究还表明了夏季低空索马里急流的变化幅度与全球平均气温的变化幅度是一个非线性的关系,各模式对二者关系的描述存在不确定性,鉴于索马里急流对印度季风和东亚季风及中国气候的重要性,索马里急流的变化规律和未来演变是科学界特别需要深入研究的问题。     

Stratospheric radiative feedback limited by the tropospheric influence in global warming

Whether the stratospheric radiative feedback amplifies the global warming remains under debate. The stratospheric water vapor (SWV), one of the primary feedbacks in the stratosphere, is argued to be an important contributor to the global warming. On the other hand, the overall stratospheric feedback, which consists of both the SWV feedback and the stratospheric temperature (ST) feedback, does not amount to a significant value. The key to reconciling these seemingly contradictory arguments is to understand the ST change. Here, we develop a method to decompose the ST change and to quantify the decomposed feedbacks. We find that the SWV feedback, which consists of a 0.04 W m⁻² K⁻¹ direct impact on the top-of-the-atmosphere radiation and 0.11 W m⁻² K⁻¹ indirect impact via ST cooling, is offset by a negative ST feedback of − 0.13 W m⁻² K⁻¹ that is radiatively driven by the tropospheric warming. This compensation results in an insignificant overall stratospheric feedback.

     

Assessment of global meteorological,hydrological and agricultural drought under future warming based on CMIP6

在全球变暖背景下,分析和预测干旱的变化趋势和传播规律对于区域生态环境安全和灾害管理具有重要意义.本文基于第六次国际耦合模式比较计划(CMIP6),分析了SSP2-4.5和SSP5-8.5两种变暖情景下的气象(标准化降水指数SPI和标准化降水蒸发指数SPED,水文(标准化径流指数SRI)和农业(标准化土壤水分指数SSI)...     

Historical and potential future contributions of power technologies to global warming

Using the mathematical formalism of the Brazilian Proposal to the IPCC, we analyse eight power technologies with regard to their past and potential future contributions to global warming. Taking into account detailed bottom-up technology characteristics we define the mitigation potential of each technology in terms of avoided temperature increase by comparing a “coal-only” reference scenario and an alternative low-carbon scenario. Future mitigation potentials are mainly determined by the magnitude of installed capacity and the temporal deployment profile. A general conclusion is that early technology deployment matters, at least within a period of 50–100?years. Our results conclusively show that avoided temperature increase is a better proxy for comparing technologies with regard to their impact on climate change, and that numerous short-term comparisons based on annual or even cumulative emissions may be misleading. Thus, our results support and extend the policy relevance of the Brazilian Proposal in the sense that not only comparisons between countries, but also comparisons between technologies could be undertaken on the basis of avoided temperature increase rather than on the basis of annual emissions as is practiced today.     

Future pattern of Asian drought under global warming scenario

This study investigates the effect of global warming on drought patterns over Asia at the end of the twenty-first century by a multi-model ensemble method based on daily precipitation data of 15 coupled climate models simulations under SRES A1B scenario, thereby assessing the consistency of responses among different models. The projected precipitation climatology was translated into the change in drought climatology using the effective drought index. The results of the models were consistent in that they project an increase in the mean and the standard deviation of precipitation over most of Asia, and the increase was considerably greater in higher latitude areas. Therefore, it is expected that in future, drought over most of Asia will occur less frequently with weaker intensity and shorter duration than those prevalent currently. However, two special regions were detected. One was the Asian monsoon regions (AMRs: South Asia and East Asia), which showed a greater increase in the standard deviation of precipitation than the mean precipitation, with an amplified seasonal precipitation cycle. As a result, part of the AMRs exhibited slight increases in drought properties such as frequency and intensity. The other region was West Asia. The region showed decreased mean precipitation, especially in its northern part (Syria and its vicinity), and more frequent droughts were projected for this region with enhanced drought intensity and lengthened drought duration. The worsening trends in drought patterns over both regions were more significant in extreme drought, the likelihood of which is relatively higher in summer in West Asia and from spring to summer in the AMRs.     

Air temperature trends in Georgia under global warming conditions

Air temperature trends under conditions of global warming are studied using the observational data from 87 meteorological stations of Georgia for the period of 1936–2011. Plotted are the geographic information maps of the spatial structure of temperature variation rate.     

Thermal regime in the Rybinsk Reservoir under global warming

Presented are the results of studying the water temperature changes in the Rybinsk Reservoir during the ice-free period caused by the climate warming. Linear trends are revealed and estimated. The trend is observed for the period of 1976?C2008 towards the increase in the average water surface temperature during all months at the maximum rise rate of 0.89°C/10 years in July. It is demonstrated that the average water temperature in the reservoir in May?COctober has been above the norm since 1995.     

Projected changes in drought occurrence under future global warming from multi-model,multi-scenario,IPCC AR4 simulations

Recent and potential future increases in global temperatures are likely to be associated with impacts on the hydrologic cycle, including changes to precipitation and increases in extreme events such as droughts. We analyze changes in drought occurrence using soil moisture data for the SRES B1, A1B and A2 future climate scenarios relative to the PICNTRL pre-industrial control and 20C3M twentieth century simulations from eight AOGCMs that participated in the IPCC AR4. Comparison with observation forced land surface model estimates indicates that the models do reasonably well at replicating our best estimates of twentieth century, large scale drought occurrence, although the frequency of long-term (more than 12-month duration) droughts are over-estimated. Under the future projections, the models show decreases in soil moisture globally for all scenarios with a corresponding doubling of the spatial extent of severe soil moisture deficits and frequency of short-term (4–6-month duration) droughts from the mid-twentieth century to the end of the twenty-first. Long-term droughts become three times more common. Regionally, the Mediterranean, west African, central Asian and central American regions show large increases most notably for long-term frequencies as do mid-latitude North American regions but with larger variation between scenarios. In general, changes under the higher emission scenarios, A1B and A2 are the greatest, and despite following a reduced emissions pathway relative to the present day, the B1 scenario shows smaller but still substantial increases in drought, globally and for most regions. Increases in drought are driven primarily by reductions in precipitation with increased evaporation from higher temperatures modulating the changes. In some regions, increases in precipitation are offset by increased evaporation. Although the predicted future changes in drought occurrence are essentially monotonic increasing globally and in many regions, they are generally not statistically different from contemporary climate (as estimated from the 1961–1990 period of the 20C3M simulations) or natural variability (as estimated from the PICNTRL simulations) for multiple decades, in contrast to primary climate variables, such as global mean surface air temperature and precipitation. On the other hand, changes in annual and seasonal means of terrestrial hydrologic variables, such as evaporation and soil moisture, are essentially undetectable within the twenty-first century. Changes in the extremes of climate and their hydrological impacts may therefore be more detectable than changes in their means.     

Dynamical greenhouse-plus feedback and polar warming amplification. Part II: meridional and vertical asymmetries of the global warming

This paper examines several prominent thermodynamic and dynamic factors responsible for the meridional and vertical warming asymmetries using a moist coupled atmosphere–surface radiative transportive four-box climate model. A coupled atmosphere–surface feedback analysis is formulated to isolate the direct response to an anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing from individual local feedbacks (water vapor, evaporation, surface sensible heat flux, and ice-albedo), and from the non-local dynamical feedback. Both the direct response and response to water vapor feedback are stronger in low latitudes. The joint effect of the ice-albedo and dynamical greenhouse-plus feedbacks acts to amplify the high latitude surface warming whereas both the evaporation and dynamical greenhouse-minus feedbacks cause a reduction of the surface warming in low latitudes. The enhancement (reduction) of local feedbacks in high (low) latitudes in response to the non-local dynamic feedback further strengthens the polar amplification of the surface warming. Both the direct response and response to water vapor feedback lead to an increase of lapse rate in both low and high latitudes. The stronger total dynamic heating in the mean state in high latitudes is responsible for a larger increase of lapse rate in high latitudes in the direct response and response to water vapor feedback. The local evaporation and surface sensible heat flux feedbacks reduce the lapse rate both in low and high latitudes through cooling the surface and warming the atmosphere. The much stronger evaporation feedback leads to a final warming in low latitudes that is stronger in the atmosphere than the surface.     

CMIP5模式对未来升温情景下全球陆地生态系统净初级生产力变化的预估

针对《巴黎协定》提出的温控目标,利用耦合模式比较计划第五阶段（CMIP5）模式在RCP2.6、RCP4.5和RCP8.5情景下的模拟结果,初步分析了全球升温情景下陆地生态系统净初级生产力（NPP）相对于参考时段（1986—2005年）的变化,重点分析了1.5℃和2℃升温时NPP相对于参考时段的变化量,并探讨了大气CO₂浓度、气温、降水和辐射的变化及其对NPP变化的影响。CMIP5基于各典型浓度路径模拟的全球陆地生态系统NPP均呈增加趋势,且NPP增加量与升温幅度成正比。在相同的升温幅度下,基于各典型浓度路径模拟的各环境因子和NPP的变化量较为一致。陆地生态系统NPP总量增加主要由大气CO₂浓度上升驱动,其他环境因子的影响相对较弱。中国东南部、非洲中部、美国东南部和亚马孙雨林西部地区NPP增加最明显。NPP变化量的空间格局主要由大气CO₂浓度增加和升温控制,降水和辐射的影响相对较小。具体而言,大气CO₂浓度上升对中低纬度的NPP变化贡献最大,对北方高纬度地区NPP变化贡献较小。温度上升有利于促进北方高纬度地区和青藏高原地区NPP,但对中低纬度地区的NPP有较强的抑制作用。鉴于既有典型浓度路径和地球系统模型的限制,本文对未来升温情景下陆地生态系统NPP的预估仍存在较大的不确定性,需要在未来的研究中进一步改进。     

全球变暖与地球“三极”气候变化

北极、南极和青藏高原分别是地球的最北端、最南端和海拔最高的高原,被称为地球“三极”。地球三极是全球气候变化的关键区与敏感区,在区域及全球气候系统中的重要性日益凸显。本文回顾了该领域的最新研究成果,重点阐述了地球三极气候年代际变化的基本特征及其对区域气候的影响,探究了在全球气候变暖背景下地球三极气候变化之间的潜在联系,讨论并展望了未来地球三极气候变化研究所面临的挑战。     

The ratio of land to ocean temperature change under global warming

The result in climate simulations, supported in the observation-based record, is that the ratio $\phi = T_{L} /T_{O} $ of land-average to ocean-average temperature change is greater than one and varies comparatively modestly as climate changes. This is investigated in results from the CMIP3 data archive of climate change simulations following the B1 and more strongly forced A1B scenarios as well as in 2×CO₂ integrations. The associated precipitation ratio $ \psi = P_{L} /P_{O} $ is also considered briefly. The behaviour of ? is analyzed in terms of a forcing-response view of the energy balance over land and ocean regions. The analysis indicates that the value of ??>?1 is not maintained by separate local balances over land and ocean but by an energetic balance that also involves a change in transport between the regions. The transport change does not restrain the land warming by exporting energy to the ocean region but, rather, the reverse. The anomalous transport is from the ocean to the land region even though the ocean warms less than the land does. Feedbacks in the ocean region, especially in the equatorial Pacific, do not sufficiently counteract the forcing and the result is an excess of energy that is transported to the land. The land warms in order to radiate away both the energy from the forcing over land but also the extra energy imported from the ocean region, thereby maintaining ??>?1. This situation can be understood to parallel the SST-forced case in model studies where ??>?1 despite the forcing being confined to the ocean area. The climate system is effective in redistributing forcing so that it is the local feedbacks, rather than the pattern of the forcing, that determine the temperature response. Land and ocean averaged quantities and budgets behave in a consistent manner to provide a simplified representation of the changes in temperature and energetic processes that are occurring. The geographical distributions of the terms do not, however, display a strong land/ocean demarcation. The land/ocean average budgets and balances are the residual of processes that vary considerably within the land and ocean boundaries.     

全球变暖情景下中国气温分区的未来变化

利用SRES A2情景下IPCC AR4的13个模式资料,结合我国月平均温度观测资料对当前和未来我国气温的分区进行对比研究。结果表明：1961-1990、2021-2050年和2071-2097年三个时段年平均气温分区在我国西部变化不大,而在我国东部发生了显著变化。1961-1990年我国东部被华北分区带分为南、北两个区;2021-2050年由于1961-1990年间的华北分区带北移,而在两广以北同时出现另一分区带,使得该时段我国东部分成东北区、华北和华中区以及华南区三个区,在2071-2097年北方分区带消失,而南方的分区带北移至长江一带,使得该时段我国东部仍可分为南、北两区。通过比较三个时段不同分区年平均温度时间变化发现,导致分区变化的原因主要是由于在不同时段各分区年平均温度的变率和增温幅度不一致所致。     

Spatiotemporal variations in climate moisture indices in Georgia under global warming

Using observational data from 50 weather stations in Georgia for the period of 1936-2013, the following climate indices of moisture regime are studied: maximum 1-day precipitation, maximum 5-day precipitation, the simple daily intensity index, the number of days with precipitation equal to not less than 10, 20, and 50 mm, number of consecutive wet and dry days. Geoinformation maps of the spatial structure are plotted, and the dynamics of these indices is studied for the period of global warming. Expected changes in the moisture regime in different physiographic regions in Georgia are assessed.