scholarly journals A biologically driven directional change in susceptibility to global-scale glaciation during the Precambrian-Cambrian transition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Boyle ◽  
Carolin R. Löscher
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
Directional Change ◽  
Temperature Window ◽  
Tectonic Boundary

Integrated geological evidence suggests that grounded ice sheets occurred at sea level across all latitudes during two intervals within the Neoproterozoic era; the “snowball Earth” (SBE) events. Glacial events at ~730 and ~650 million years ago (Ma) were probably followed by a less severe but nonetheless global-scale glaciation at ~580Ma, immediately preceding the proliferation of the first fossils exhibiting unambiguous animal-like form. Existing modelling identifies weathering-induced CO2 draw-down as a critical aspect of glacial inception, but ultimately attributes the SBE phenomenon to unusual tectonic boundary conditions. Here we suggest that the evident directional decrease in Earth’s susceptibility to a SBE suggests that such a-directional abiotic factors are an insufficient explanation for the lack of SBE events since ~580 Ma. Instead we hypothesize that the terrestrial biosphere’s capacity to sustain a given level of biotic weathering-enhancement under suboptimal/declining temperatures, itself decreased over time: because lichens (with a relatively robust tolerance of sub-optimal temperatures) were gradually displaced on the land surface by more complex photosynthetic life (with a narrower temperature window for growth). We use a simple modelling exercise to highlight the critical (but neglected) importance of the temperature sensitivity of the biotic weathering enhancement factor and discuss the likely values of key parameters in relation to both experiments and the results of complex climate models. We show how the terrestrial biosphere’s capacity to sustain a given level of silicate-weathering-induced CO2 draw-down is critical to the temperature/greenhouse forcing at which SBE initiation is conceivable. We do not dispute the importance of low degassing rate and other tectonic factors, but propose that the unique feature of the Neoproterozoic was biology’s capacity to tip the system over the edge into a runaway ice-albedo feedback; compensating for the self-limiting decline in weathering rate during the temperature decrease on the approach to glaciation. Such compensation was more significant in the Neoproterozoic than the Phanerozoic due, ultimately, to changes in the species composition of the weathering interface over the course of evolutionary time.

Simulating riverine nutrient transport on global scale

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Stacke ◽  
Stefan Hagemann ◽  
Gibran Romero-Mujalli ◽  
Jens Hartmann ◽  
Helmuth Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Nutrient Loads ◽  
Input Dataset ◽  
Ocean Models ◽  
Energy And Momentum

<p>The currently ongoing CMIP6 simulations feature Earth System Models with interactively coupled components for atmosphere, ocean and land surface. Water, energy and momentum between these components are exchanged conservatively. This is crucial to compute climate interactions and their feedbacks consistently. Currently, the representation of biogeochemical cycles in land surface and ocean models is advancing including not only a carbon cycle but also processes based on nutrients like nitrogen or phosphorus. Some land surface models (LSM) already compute leaching of such constituents from the soil, and some ocean models (OM) consider nutrient influx from the land for a number of processes, e.g. biological activity. However, the OMs usually use observed data as input instead of the nutrient loads computed by the LSMs. This setup cannot represent the effects of climate or land use change on nutrient availability and therefore limits the applications of ESMs in respect to climate change impacts.</p><p>For this reason, we are extending our hydrological discharge model, the HDM, to not only transport water but also other constituents. The HDM is an established component of regional (GCOAST, ESM ROM, Reg-CM-ES) as well as global (MPI-ESM) climate models but also applicable as stand-alone model. In a first step, only inert transport is simulated without considering any chemical reactions or biological transformation during river flow. The transport is realized using the same linear cascade infrastructure as used for water transport. However, a successful offline validation of these new features does not only require a realistic routing scheme and consequently the representation of the most important reactions during transport, but also the generation of sensible input data either from large scale models or from observations. In our presentation, we will outline the state of this work together with the compiled input dataset.</p>

scholarly journals Snowball Earth Bifurcations in a Fully-Implicit Earth System Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (06) ◽  
pp. 2130017
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Mulder ◽  
Heiko Goelzer ◽  
Fred W. Wubs ◽  
Henk A. Dijkstra
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Earth System Model ◽  
System Model ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
Fully Implicit ◽  
Additional Support

There is now much geological evidence that the Earth was fully glaciated during several periods in the geological past (about 700[Formula: see text]Myr ago) and attained a so-called Snowball Earth (SBE) state. Additional support for this idea has come from climate models of varying complexity that show transitions to SBE states and undergo hysteresis under changes in solar radiation. In this paper, we apply large-scale bifurcation analyses to a novel, fully-implicit Earth System Model of Intermediate Complexity (I-EMIC) to study SBE transitions. The I-EMIC contains a primitive equation ocean model, a model for atmospheric heat and moisture transport, a sea ice component and formulations for the adjustment of albedo over snow and ice. With the I-EMIC, high-dimensional branches of the SBE bifurcation diagram are obtained through parameter continuation. We are able to identify stable and unstable equilibria and uncover an intricate bifurcation structure associated with the ice-albedo feedback. Moreover, large-scale linear stability analyses are performed near major bifurcations, revealing the spatial nature of destabilizing perturbations.

scholarly journals La représentation des surfaces continentales dans la modélisation du climat à Météo-France

2020 ◽  
pp. 067
Author(s):  
Bertrand Decharme ◽  
Christine Delire ◽  
Aaron Boone
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Land Surfaces ◽  
Computational Resources

Les surfaces continentales jouent un rôle non négligeable dans le système climatique de la Terre. Elles occupent d'ailleurs une place majeure dans les cycles globaux de l'eau et du carbone. Elles ont été prises en compte dès les premiers modèles numériques de climat et, avec l'évolution des connaissances, des capacités de calcul et de la demande sociétale, leur représentation s'est aujourd'hui considérablement complexifiée. Nous présentons ici une brève histoire de l'évolution du modèle de surfaces Isba (Interactions sol-biosphère-atmosphère) de Météo-France dans son utilisation à l'échelle du globe en la replaçant dans le contexte international de la modélisation climatique. Land surfaces play a significant role in the Earth climate system, and they are a major component of the global carbon and water cycles. The first numerical climate models took them into account in very simple ways. Through time the complexity of their representation has increased a lot owing to improved knowledge, larger computational resources and changing societal demands. We present here a brief history of the ISBA (Interactions Soil-Biosphere-Atmosphere) land surface model developed at Météo-France when used at the global scale and how it evolved in the context of international climate modelling.

scholarly journals The initiation of modern soft and hard Snowball Earth climates in CCSM4

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 907-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Yang ◽  
W. R. Peltier ◽  
Y. Hu
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Concentration ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Climate System Model ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
Radiative Forcings ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Geochemical and geological evidence has suggested that several global-scale glaciation events occurred during the Neoproterozoic Era in the interval from 750–580 million years ago. The initiation of these glaciations is thought to have been a consequence of the combined influence of a low level of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and an approximately 6% weakening of solar luminosity. The latest version of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4) is employed herein to explore the detailed combination of forcings required to trigger such extreme glaciation conditions under present-day circumstances of geography and topography. It is found that runaway glaciation occurs in the model under the following conditions: (1) an 8–9% reduction in solar radiation with 286 ppmv CO2 or (2) a 6% reduction in solar radiation with 70–100 ppmv CO2. These thresholds are moderately different from those found to be characteristic of the previously employd CCSM3 model reported recently in Yang et al. (2012a,b), for which the respective critical points corresponded to a 10–10.5% reduction in solar radiation with 286 ppmv CO2 or a 6% reduction in solar radiation with 17.5–20 ppmv CO2. The most important reason for these differences is that the sea ice/snow albedo parameterization employed in CCSM4 is believed to be more realistic than that in CCSM3. Differences in cloud radiative forcings and ocean and atmosphere heat transports also influence the bifurcation points. These results are potentially very important, as they are to serve as control on further calculations which will be devoted to an investigation of the impact of continental configuration. We demonstrate that there exist ''soft Snowball'' Earth states, in which the fractional sea ice coverage reaches approximately 60–65%, land masses in low latitudes are covered by perennial snow, and runaway glaciation does not develop. This is consistent with our previous results based upon CCSM3. Although our results cannot exclude the possibility of a ''hard Snowball'' solution, it is suggested that a ''soft Snowball'' solution for the Neoproterozoic remains entirely plausible.

scholarly journals Parametrization of a lake water dynamics model MLake in the ISBA-CTRIP land surface system (SURFEX v8.1)

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1309-1344
Author(s):  
Thibault Guinaldo ◽  
Simon Munier ◽  
Patrick Le Moigne ◽  
Aaron Boone ◽  
Bertrand Decharme ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Hydrological Modeling ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Water Dynamics ◽  
Lake Outlet ◽  
The Impact ◽  
River Routing

Abstract. Lakes are of fundamental importance in the Earth system as they support essential environmental and economic services, such as freshwater supply. Streamflow variability and temporal evolution are impacted by the presence of lakes in the river network; therefore, any change in the lake state can induce a modification of the regional hydrological regime. Despite the importance of the impact of lakes on hydrological fluxes and the water balance, a representation of the mass budget is generally not included in climate models and global-scale hydrological modeling platforms. The goal of this study is to introduce a new lake mass module, MLake (Mass-Lake model), into the river-routing model CTRIP to resolve the specific mass balance of open-water bodies. Based on the inherent CTRIP parameters, the development of the non-calibrated MLake model was introduced to examine the influence of such hydrological buffer areas on global-scale river-routing performance. In the current study, an offline evaluation was performed for four river networks using a set of state-of-the-art quality atmospheric forcings and a combination of in situ and satellite measurements for river discharge and lake level observations. The results reveal a general improvement in CTRIP-simulated discharge and its variability, while also generating realistic lake level variations. MLake produces more realistic streamflows both in terms of daily and seasonal correlation. Excluding the specific case of Lake Victoria having low performances, the mean skill score of Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) is 0.41 while the normalized information contribution (NIC) shows a mean improvement of 0.56 (ranging from 0.15 to 0.94). Streamflow results are spatially scale-dependent, with better scores associated with larger lakes and increased sensitivity to the width of the lake outlet. Regarding lake level variations, results indicate a good agreement between observations and simulations with a mean correlation of 0.56 (ranging from 0.07 to 0.92) which is linked to the capability of the model to retrieve seasonal variations. Discrepancies in the results are mainly explained by the anthropization of the selected lakes, which introduces high-frequency variations in both streamflows and lake levels that degraded the scores. Anthropization effects are prevalent in most of the lakes studied, but they are predominant for Lake Victoria and are the main cause for relatively low statistical scores for the Nile River However, results on the Angara and the Neva rivers also depend on the inherent gap of ISBA-CTRIP process representation, which relies on further development such as the partitioned energy budget between the snow and the canopy over a boreal zone. The study is a first step towards a global coupled land system that will help to qualitatively assess the evolution of future global water resources, leading to improvements in flood risk and drought forecasting.

scholarly journals The initiation of modern soft and hard Snowball Earth climates in CCSM4

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Yang ◽  
W. R. Peltier
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Climate System Model ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
Radiative Forcings ◽  
Ice Coverage ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
Atmospheric Heat

Abstract. Geochemical and geological evidence suggested that several global-scale glaciation events occurred during the Neoproterozoic era at 750–580 million years ago. The initiation of these glaciations is thought to have been a consequence of the combined influence of a result of low-level carbon dioxide and an approximately 6% weakening of solar luminosity. The latest version of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4) is employed herein to explore the detailed combination of forcings required to trigger such extreme glaciation under present-day geography and topography conditions. It is found that runaway glaciation occurs in the model under the following conditions: (1) a 8–9% reduction in solar radiation with 286 ppmv CO2 or (2) a 6% reduction in solar radiation with 70–100 ppmv CO2. These thresholds are only moderately different from those found to be characteristic of the previous CCSM3 model reported recently in Yang et al. (2011a,b) for which the respective critical points corresponded to a 10–10.5% reduction in solar radiation with 286 ppmv CO2 or a 6% reduction in solar radiation with 17.5–20 ppmv CO2. The most important reason for these differences is that the sea-ice/snow albedo in CCSM4 is somewhat higher than in CCSM3. Differences in cloud radiative forcings and oceanic and atmospheric heat transports between CCSM3 and CCSM4 also influence the bifurcation points. The forcings required to trigger a "hard Snowball" Earth in either CCSM3 or CCSM4 may be not met by the conditions expected to be characteristic of the Neoproterozoic. Furthermore, there exist "soft Snowball" Earth states, in which the sea-ice coverage reaches approximately 60–65%, land masses in low latitudes are covered by perennial snow, and runaway glaciation does not develop. This is also qualitatively consistent with our previous results of the CCSM3 model. These results suggest that a "soft Snowball" solution for the Neoproterozoic is entirely plausible and may in fact be preferred.

scholarly journals Fractional Vegetation Cover Estimation Algorithm for FY-3B Reflectance Data Based on Random Forest Regression Method

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2165
Author(s):  
Duanyang Liu ◽  
Kun Jia ◽  
Haiying Jiang ◽  
Mu Xia ◽  
Guofeng Tao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Estimation Algorithm ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Fractional Vegetation Cover ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Temporal Validation ◽  
Reliability And Robustness ◽  
Reflectance Data

As an important land surface vegetation parameter, fractional vegetation cover (FVC) has been widely used in many Earth system ecological and climate models. In particular, high-quality and reliable FVC products on the global scale are important for the Earth surface process simulation and global change studies. Recently, the FengYun-3 (FY-3) series satellites, which are the second generation of Chinese meteorological satellites, launched with the polar orbit and provide continuous land surface observations on a global scale. However, there is rare studying on the FVC estimation using FY-3 reflectance data. Therefore, the FY-3B reflectance data were selected as the representative data to develop a FVC estimation algorithm in this study, which would investigate the capability of the FY-3 reflectance data on the global FVC estimation. The spatial–temporal validation over the regional area indicated that the FVC estimations generated by the proposed algorithm had reliable continuities. Furthermore, a satisfactory accuracy performance (R2 = 0.7336, RMSE = 0.1288) was achieved for the proposed algorithm based on the Earth Observation LABoratory (EOLAB) reference FVC data, which provided further evidence on the reliability and robustness of the proposed algorithm. All these results indicated that the FY-3 reflectance data were capable of generating a FVC estimation with reliable spatial–temporal continuities and accuracy.

Can we deduce irrigation trends at global scale from the ones of essential climate variables?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Ducharne ◽  
Amen Al-Yaari ◽  
Frédérique Cheruy ◽  
Jean-Pierre Wigneron
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Precipitation Climatology Project ◽  
Research Unit ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Climate Variables ◽  
Precipitation Climatology ◽  
Global Precipitation

<p>Irrigation is the most important water use sector that can impact land-atmosphere feedback and climate. The use of irrigation is increasing but its effects on climate are still ignored in most of the climate models due to the lack of accurate information on its sources or its extent over the whole globe. The only map that presented a global inventory on the extent of areas irrigated with groundwater and surface water was published in 2013 (Siebert et al., 2013). Here, we take advantage of the abundance of global satellite observations to investigate the effects of irrigation on long-term trends in essential climate variables: (i) temperature obtained from the Climate Research Unit (CRU data), (ii) precipitation obtained from CRU, Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), and Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC), (iii) soil moisture obtained from Soil moisture and ocean salinity (SMOS) satellite, (iv) evapotranspiration obtained from CRU and the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM), and (v) land cover based on the multi-epoch ESA LC dataset. Based on the potential links between the existing information of irrigation and these five climate and land-surface variables, possible tracking of the irrigation extent over other regions, where no information exist, will be investigated. This study is ongoing and preliminary results will be presented.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>Siebert, S., Henrich, V., Frenken, K., Burke, J., 2013. Update of the Global Map of Irrigation Areas to version 5. Proj. Rep.</p>

scholarly journals A near-global, high resolution land surface parameter dataset for the variable infiltration capacity model

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob R. Schaperow ◽  
Dongyue Li ◽  
Steven A. Margulis ◽  
Dennis P. Lettenmaier
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Variable Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Vic Model ◽  
Spatial Coverage ◽  
Land Surface Parameter ◽  
Vegetation Parameters

AbstractHydrologic models predict the spatial and temporal distribution of water and energy at the land surface. Currently, parameter availability limits global-scale hydrologic modelling to very coarse resolution, hindering researchers from resolving fine-scale variability. With the aim of addressing this problem, we present a set of globally consistent soil and vegetation parameters for the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model at 1/16° resolution (approximately 6 km at the equator), with spatial coverage from 60°S to 85°N. Soil parameters derived from interpolated soil profiles and vegetation parameters estimated from space-based MODIS measurements have been compiled into input files for both the Classic and Image drivers of the VIC model, version 5. Geographical subsetting codes are provided, as well. Our dataset provides all necessary land surface parameters to run the VIC model at regional to global scale. We evaluate VICGlobal’s ability to simulate the water balance in the Upper Colorado River basin and 12 smaller basins in the CONUS, and their ability to simulate the radiation budget at six SURFRAD stations in the CONUS.

scholarly journals Repeated surveying over 6 years reveals that fine-scale habitat variables are key to tropical mountain ant assemblage composition and functional diversity

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mulalo M. Muluvhahothe ◽  
Grant S. Joseph ◽  
Colleen L. Seymour ◽  
Thinandavha C. Munyai ◽  
Stefan H. Foord
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Composition Analysis ◽  
Fine Scale

AbstractHigh-altitude-adapted ectotherms can escape competition from dominant species by tolerating low temperatures at cooler elevations, but climate change is eroding such advantages. Studies evaluating broad-scale impacts of global change for high-altitude organisms often overlook the mitigating role of biotic factors. Yet, at fine spatial-scales, vegetation-associated microclimates provide refuges from climatic extremes. Using one of the largest standardised data sets collected to date, we tested how ant species composition and functional diversity (i.e., the range and value of species traits found within assemblages) respond to large-scale abiotic factors (altitude, aspect), and fine-scale factors (vegetation, soil structure) along an elevational gradient in tropical Africa. Altitude emerged as the principal factor explaining species composition. Analysis of nestedness and turnover components of beta diversity indicated that ant assemblages are specific to each elevation, so species are not filtered out but replaced with new species as elevation increases. Similarity of assemblages over time (assessed using beta decay) did not change significantly at low and mid elevations but declined at the highest elevations. Assemblages also differed between northern and southern mountain aspects, although at highest elevations, composition was restricted to a set of species found on both aspects. Functional diversity was not explained by large scale variables like elevation, but by factors associated with elevation that operate at fine scales (i.e., temperature and habitat structure). Our findings highlight the significance of fine-scale variables in predicting organisms’ responses to changing temperature, offering management possibilities that might dilute climate change impacts, and caution when predicting assemblage responses using climate models, alone.

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