scholarly journals Past and future global transformation of terrestrial ecosystems under climate change

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 361 (6405) ◽  
pp. 920-923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connor Nolan ◽  
Jonathan T. Overpeck ◽  
Judy R. M. Allen ◽  
Patricia M. Anderson ◽  
Julio L. Betancourt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Emission Scenarios ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Alternative Future ◽  
High Emission ◽  
The Last Glacial

Impacts of global climate change on terrestrial ecosystems are imperfectly constrained by ecosystem models and direct observations. Pervasive ecosystem transformations occurred in response to warming and associated climatic changes during the last glacial-to-interglacial transition, which was comparable in magnitude to warming projected for the next century under high-emission scenarios. We reviewed 594 published paleoecological records to examine compositional and structural changes in terrestrial vegetation since the last glacial period and to project the magnitudes of ecosystem transformations under alternative future emission scenarios. Our results indicate that terrestrial ecosystems are highly sensitive to temperature change and suggest that, without major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems worldwide are at risk of major transformation, with accompanying disruption of ecosystem services and impacts on biodiversity.

scholarly journals Reduced resilience of terrestrial ecosystems locally is not reflected on a global scale

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhao Feng ◽  
Haojie Su ◽  
Zhiyao Tang ◽  
Shaopeng Wang ◽  
Xia Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Ecosystem Resilience

AbstractGlobal climate change likely alters the structure and function of vegetation and the stability of terrestrial ecosystems. It is therefore important to assess the factors controlling ecosystem resilience from local to global scales. Here we assess terrestrial vegetation resilience over the past 35 years using early warning indicators calculated from normalized difference vegetation index data. On a local scale we find that climate change reduced the resilience of ecosystems in 64.5% of the global terrestrial vegetated area. Temperature had a greater influence on vegetation resilience than precipitation, while climate mean state had a greater influence than climate variability. However, there is no evidence for decreased ecological resilience on larger scales. Instead, climate warming increased spatial asynchrony of vegetation which buffered the global-scale impacts on resilience. We suggest that the response of terrestrial ecosystem resilience to global climate change is scale-dependent and influenced by spatial asynchrony on the global scale.

Varied Response of Western Pacific Hydrology to Climate Forcings over the Last Glacial Period

Science ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 340 (6140) ◽  
pp. 1564-1566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy A. Carolin ◽  
Kim M. Cobb ◽  
Jess F. Adkins ◽  
Brian Clark ◽  
Jessica L. Conroy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Abrupt Climate Change ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Change Events ◽  
Climate Forcings ◽  
Isotopic Records ◽  
The Last Glacial

Atmospheric deep convection in the west Pacific plays a key role in the global heat and moisture budgets, yet its response to orbital and abrupt climate change events is poorly resolved. Here, we present four absolutely dated, overlapping stalagmite oxygen isotopic records from northern Borneo that span most of the last glacial cycle. The records suggest that northern Borneo’s hydroclimate shifted in phase with precessional forcing but was only weakly affected by glacial-interglacial changes in global climate boundary conditions. Regional convection likely decreased during Heinrich events, but other Northern Hemisphere abrupt climate change events are notably absent. The new records suggest that the deep tropical Pacific hydroclimate variability may have played an important role in shaping the global response to the largest abrupt climate change events.

scholarly journals Inter-annual variability in the tropical Atlantic from the Last Glacial Maximum into future climate projections simulated by CMIP5/PMIP3

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 1377-1390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Brierley ◽  
Ilana Wainer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Tropical Atlantic ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. Tropical Atlantic variability (TAV) plays an important role in driving year-to-year changes in rainfall over Africa and South America. In this study, its response to global climate change is investigated through a series of multi-model experiments. We explore the leading modes of TAV during the historical, Last Glacial Maximum, mid-Holocene, and future simulations in the multi-model ensemble known as PMIP3/CMIP5. Despite their known sea surface temperature biases, most of the models are able to capture the tropical Atlantic's two leading modes of SST variability patterns – the Atlantic Meridional Mode (AMM) and the Atlantic zonal mode (also called the Atlantic Niño or ATL3). The ensemble suggests that AMM amplitude was less during the mid-Holocene and increased during the Last Glacial Maximum, but is equivocal about future changes. ATL3 appears stronger under both the Last Glacial Maximum and future climate changes, with no consistent message about the mid-Holocene. The patterns and the regions under the influence of the two modes alter a little under climate change in concert with changes in the mean climate state. In the future climate experiment, the equatorial mode weakens, and the whole Northern Hemisphere warms up, while the South Atlantic displays a hemisphere-wide weak oscillating pattern. For the LGM, the AMM projects onto a pattern that resembles the pan-Atlantic decadal oscillation. No robust relationships between the amplitude of the zonal and meridional temperature gradients and their respective variability was found.

Love, Inc.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Essig
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Dating Apps ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
True Love ◽  
The Future ◽  
False Sense ◽  
Global Movements

In Love, Inc., Laurie Essig argues that love is not all we need. As the future became less secure—with global climate change and the transfer of wealth to the few—Americans became more romantic. Romance is not just what lovers do but also what lovers learn through ideology. As an ideology, romance allowed us to privatize our futures, to imagine ourselves as safe and secure tomorrow if only we could find our "one true love" today. But the fairy dust of romance blinded us to what we really need: global movements and structural changes. By traveling through dating apps and spectacular engagements, white weddings and Disney honeymoons, Essig shows us how romance was sold to us and why we bought it. Love, Inc. seduced so many of us into a false sense of security, but it also, paradoxically, gives us hope in hopeless times. This book explores the struggle between our inner cynics and our inner romantic.

scholarly journals <i>δ</i><sup>13</sup>C decreases in the upper western South Atlantic during Heinrich Stadials 3 and 2

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marília C. Campos ◽  
Cristiano M. Chiessi ◽  
Ines Voigt ◽  
Alberto R. Piola ◽  
Henning Kuhnert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Last Deglaciation ◽  
Last Glacial Period ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Change Events ◽  
The Last Glacial ◽  
Millennial Scale

Abstract. Abrupt millennial-scale climate change events of the last deglaciation (i.e. Heinrich Stadial 1 and the Younger Dryas) were accompanied by marked increases in atmospheric CO2 (CO2atm) and decreases in its stable carbon isotopic ratios (δ13C), i.e. δ13CO2atm, presumably due to outgassing from the ocean. However, information on the preceding Heinrich Stadials during the last glacial period is scarce. Here we present δ13C records from two species of planktonic foraminifera from the western South Atlantic that reveal major decreases (up to 1 ‰) during Heinrich Stadials 3 and 2. These δ13C decreases are most likely related to millennial-scale periods of weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the consequent increase (decrease) in CO2atm (δ13CO2atm). We hypothesise two mechanisms that could account for the decreases observed in our records, namely strengthening of Southern Ocean deep-water ventilation and weakening of the biological pump. Additionally, we suggest that air–sea gas exchange could have contributed to the observed δ13C decreases. Together with other lines of evidence, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that the CO2 added to the atmosphere during abrupt millennial-scale climate change events of the last glacial period also originated in the ocean and reached the atmosphere by outgassing. The temporal evolution of δ13C during Heinrich Stadials 3 and 2 in our records is characterized by two relative minima separated by a relative maximum. This w structure is also found in North Atlantic and South American records, further suggesting that such a structure is a pervasive feature of Heinrich Stadial 2 and, possibly, also Heinrich Stadial 3.

A coupled multi-proxy and process modelling approach for extraction of quantitative terrestrial ecosystem information from speleothems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Lechleitner ◽  
Christopher C. Day ◽  
Oliver Kost ◽  
Micah Wilhelm ◽  
Negar Haghipour ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Clear Correlation ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Regional Temperature ◽  
Global Carbon

&lt;p&gt;Terrestrial ecosystems are intimately linked with the global climate system, but their response to ongoing and future anthropogenic climate change remains poorly understood. Reconstructing the response of terrestrial ecosystem processes over past periods of rapid and substantial climate change can serve as a tool to better constrain the sensitivity in the ecosystem-climate response.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this talk, we will present a new reconstruction of soil respiration in the temperate region of Western Europe based on speleothem carbon isotopes (&amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C). Soil respiration remains poorly constrained over past climatic transitions, but is critical for understanding the global carbon cycle and its response to ongoing anthropogenic warming. Our study builds upon two decades of speleothem research in Western Europe, which has shown clear correlation between &amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C and regional temperature reconstructions during the last glacial and the deglaciation, with exceptional regional coherency in timing, amplitude, and absolute &amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C variation. By combining innovative multi-proxy geochemical analysis (&amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C, Ca isotopes, and radiocarbon) on three speleothems from Northern Spain, and quantitative forward modelling of processes in soil, karst, and cave, we show how deglacial variability in speleothem &amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C is best explained by increasing soil respiration. Our study is the first to quantify and remove the effects of prior calcite precipitation (PCP, using Ca isotopes) and bedrock dissolution (open vs closed system, using the radiocarbon reservoir effect) from the speleothem &amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C signal to derive changes in respired &amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C over time. Our approach allows us to estimate the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt;), which is higher than current measurements, suggesting that part of the speleothem signal may be related to a change in the composition of the soil respired &amp;#948;&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C. This is likely related to changing substrate through increasing contribution from vegetation biomass with the onset of the Holocene.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These results highlight the exciting possibilities speleothems offer as a coupled archive for quantitative proxy-based reconstructions of climate and ecosystem conditions.&lt;/p&gt;

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