Terrestrial Processes and Their Roles in Climate Change

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.825 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nathalie de Noblet-Ducoudré ◽

Andrew J. Pitman

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Land Surface ◽

Seasonal Cycle ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Surface Processes ◽

Climate Modelling ◽

Climate Simulations

The land surface is where humans live and where they source their water and food. The land surface plays an important role in climate and anthropogenic climate change both as a driver of change and as a system that responds to change. Soils and vegetation influence the exchanges of water, energy and carbon between the land and the overlying atmosphere and thus contribute to the variability and the evolution of climate. But the role of the land in climate is scale dependent which means different processes matter on different timescales and over different spatial scales. Climate change alters the functioning of the land with changes in the seasonal cycle of ecosystem growth, in the extent of forests, the melt of permafrost, the magnitude and frequency of disturbances such as fire, drought, … Those changes feedback into climate at both the global and the regional scales. In addition, humans perturb the land conditions via deforestation, irrigation, urbanization, … and this directly affects climatic conditions at the local to regional scales with also sometimes global consequences via the release of greenhouse gases. Not accounting for land surface processes in climate modelling, whatever the spatial scale, will result in biases in the climate simulations.

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The role of land surface processes in regional climate change: a case study of future land cover change over south western Australia

Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics ◽

10.1007/s00703-005-0131-1 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 89 (1-4) ◽

pp. 235-249 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

A. J. Pitman ◽

G. T. Narisma

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Western Australia ◽

Land Surface ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Regional Climate Change ◽

Surface Processes

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On Approaches to Taking into Account the Risks of Changing Climatic Conditions when Planning and Implementing Oil and Gas Projects

Issues of Risk Analysis ◽

10.32686/1812-5220-2021-18-1-52-65 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 52-65

Author(s):

P. N. Mikheev

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Oil And Gas Industry ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Qualitative Assessment ◽

Physical Factors ◽

Gas Industry ◽

Climate Risks ◽

The Impact

The article discusses issues related to the impact of climate change on the objects of the oil and gas industry. The main trends in climate change on a global and regional (on the territory of Russian Federation) scale are outlined. Possible approaches to the identification and assessment of climate risks are discussed. The role of climatic risks as physical factors at various stages of development and implementation of oil and gas projects is shown. Based on the example of oil and gas facilities in the Tomsk region, a qualitative assessment of the level of potential risk from a weather and climatic perspective is given. Approaches to creating a risk management and adaptation system to climate change are presented.

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Simplified climate modelling to size economic boundaries

10.14293/s2199-1006.1.sor-.ppydlmq.v3 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Anderl

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Economic Growth ◽

Water Vapor ◽

Translational Energy ◽

Climate Modelling ◽

Foreseeable Future ◽

Natural Processes ◽

Scientific Results ◽

Public Demand

The broader public demand reproducibility of scientific results particularly related to hot societal topics. The present work applies the 80:20-rule to climate change, concentrating on the essentials from the readily observable and identifying the inherent relationships in their potential simplicity. Observations on 400 Mio. years of paleoclimate are found to well constrain the compound universal climate role of CO 2. Combined with observations on the industrial-era atmospheric CO 2 and ocean heat evolvement, climate risk assessment and projections on the economic boundaries are performed. Independently in conjunction with energy budget studies, simple models are presented for the fundamental natural processes related to: (i) water vapor and CO 2 effect on temperature; (ii) transient and equilibrium climate; (iii) heating from the V/R-T (vibrational/rotational to translational) energy transfer; (iv) Earth emissivity changing with surface temperature; (v) water vapor for Earths energy balance maintenance; (vi) rainfall pattern altering with temperature; (vii) natures reaction on the anthropogenic energy consumption. In conclusion, realistic estimates point at precluding positive economic growth for the foreseeable future if temperatures are to be given a reasonable chance to become sustainably contained within sensible limits.

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Climate Change and Aerosol Sciences

10.47260/jesge/1132 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Kehan Li

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Warming ◽

Particulate Matter ◽

Environmental Policy ◽

Solar Radiation ◽

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Atmospheric Aerosols ◽

Environmental Policies ◽

Modern Times

Climate change is of great importance in modern times and global warming is considered as a significant part of climate change. It is proved that human’s emissions such as greenhouse gases are one of the main sources of global warming (IPCC, 2018). Apart from greenhouse gases, there is another kind of matter being released in quantity via emissions from industries and transportations and playing an important role in global warming, which is aerosol. However, atmospheric aerosols have the net effect of cooling towards global warming. In this paper, climate change with respect to global warming is briefly introduced and the role of aerosols in the atmosphere is emphasized. Besides, properties of aerosols including dynamics and thermodynamics of aerosols as well as interactions with solar radiation are concluded. In the end, environmental policies and solutions are discussed. Keywords: Climate change, Global warming, Atmospheric aerosols, Particulate matter, Radiation, Environmental policy.

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Spatial Relationship between Precipitation and Runoff in Africa

10.5194/hess-2018-424 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Fidele Karamage ◽

Yuanbo Liu ◽

Xingwang Fan ◽

Meta Francis Justine ◽

Guiping Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Surface ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Spatial Relationship ◽

Resource Planning ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Runoff Coefficient ◽

Global Precipitation Climatology Centre ◽

High Runoff ◽

Monthly Runoff

Abstract. Lack of sufficient and reliable hydrological information is a key hindrance to water resource planning and management in Africa. Hence, the objective of this research is to examine the relationship between precipitation and runoff at three spatial scales, including the whole continent, 25 major basins and 55 countries. For this purpose, the long-term monthly runoff coefficient (Rc) was estimated using the long-term monthly runoff data (R) calculated from the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) streamflow records and Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) precipitation datasets for the period of time spanning from 1901 to 2017. Subsequently, the observed Rc data were interpolated in order to estimate Rc over the ungauged basins under guidance of key runoff controlling factors, including the land-surface temperature (T), precipitation (P) and potential runoff coefficient (Co) inferred from the land use and land cover, slope and soil texture information. The results show that 16 % of the annual mean precipitation (672.52 mm) becomes runoff (105.72 mm), with a runoff coefficient of 0.16, and the remaining 84 % (566.80 mm) evapotranspirates over the continent during 1901–2017. Spatial analysis reveals that the precipitation–runoff relationship varies significantly among different basins and countries, mainly dependent on climatic conditions and its inter-annual variability. Generally, high runoff depths and runoff coefficients are observed over humid tropical basins and countries with high precipitation intensity compared to those located in subtropical and temperate drylands.

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The use of multi-tracer flask-measurements to understand changes in the land-surface processes.

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15179 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Theertha Kariyathan ◽

Wouter Peters ◽

Julia Marshall ◽

Ana Bastos ◽

Markus Reichstein

Keyword(s):

Northern Hemisphere ◽

Land Surface ◽

Seasonal Cycle ◽

Growing Season ◽

Plant Productivity ◽

Surface Processes ◽

Terrestrial Biosphere ◽

Land Surface Processes ◽

Species Analysis

Carbon dioxide (CO2)&#160;is an important greenhouse gas, and it accounts for about 20% of the present-day anthropogenic greenhouse effect. Atmospheric CO2 is cycled between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere through various land-surface processes and thus links the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere through positive and negative feedback. Since multiple trace gas elements are linked by common biogeochemical processes, multi-species analysis is useful for reinforcing our understanding and can help in partitioning CO2 fluxes. For example,&#160;in the northern hemisphere, CO2 has a distinct seasonal cycle mainly regulated by plant photosynthesis and respiration and it&#160;has a distinct negative correlation with the&#160;seasonal cycle of the &#948;13C isotope of CO2,&#160;due to a stronger isotopic fractionation&#160;associated with terrestrial photosynthesis.&#160;Therefore, multi-species flask-data measurements are useful for the long-term analysis of various green-house gases. Here we try to&#160;infer the complex interaction between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere by&#160;multi-species analysis using&#160;atmospheric flask measurement data from different NOAA flask measurement sites across the northern hemisphere.This study focuses on the long-term changes in the seasonal cycle of CO2 over the northern hemisphere and tries to attribute the observed changes to driving land-surface processes through a combined analysis of the &#948;13C seasonal cycle. For this we generate metrics of different parameters of the CO2&#160;and &#948;13C&#160;seasonal cycle like the seasonal cycle amplitude given by the peak-to-peak difference of the cycle (indicative of the amount of CO2 taken up by terrestrial uptake),&#160; the intensity of plant productivity inferred from the slope of the seasonal cycle during the growing season , length of growing season and the start of the growing season. We analyze the inter-relation between these metrics and how they change across latitude and over time.&#160;We hypothesize that the CO2 seasonal cycle amplitude is controlled both by the intensity of plant productivity and period of the active growing season and that the timing of the growing season can affect the intensity of plant productivity. We then quantify these relationships, including their variation over time and latitudes and describe the effects of an earlier start of the growing season on the intensity of plant productivity and the CO2&#160;uptake by plants.

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Evaluation of a Unique Approach to High-Resolution Climate Modelling using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) version 5.1

10.5194/gmd-2019-34 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Allison C. Michaelis ◽

Gary M. Lackmann ◽

Walter A. Robinson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

High Resolution ◽

Sea Ice ◽

Northern Hemisphere ◽

General Circulation ◽

Southern Oscillation ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

General Circulation Models ◽

Climate Modelling ◽

Northern Hemispheric

Abstract. We present multi-seasonal simulations representative of present-day and future thermodynamic environments using the global Model for Prediction Across Scales-Atmosphere (MPAS) version 5.1 with high resolution (15 km) throughout the Northern Hemisphere. We select ten simulation years with varying phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and integrate each for 14.5 months. We use analysed sea surface temperature (SST) patterns for present-day simulations. For the future climate simulations, we alter present-day SSTs by applying monthly-averaged temperature changes derived from a 20-member ensemble of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) general circulation models (GCMs) following the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emissions scenario. Daily sea ice fields, obtained from the monthly-averaged CMIP5 ensemble mean sea ice, are used for present-day and future simulations. The present-day simulations provide a reasonable reproduction of large-scale atmospheric features in the Northern Hemisphere such as the wintertime midlatitude storm tracks, upper-tropospheric jets, and maritime sea-level pressure features as well as annual precipitation patterns across the tropics. The simulations also adequately represent tropical cyclone (TC) characteristics such as strength, spatial distribution, and seasonal cycles for most of Northern Hemispheric basins. These results demonstrate the applicability of these model simulations for future studies examining climate change effects on various Northern Hemispheric phenomena, and, more generally, the utility of MPAS for studying climate change at spatial scales generally unachievable in GCMs.

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