scholarly journals Impacts of Saline-Alkali Land Improvement on Regional Climate: Process, Mechanisms, and Implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 3407
Author(s):  
Lingxue Yu ◽  
Jiuchun Yang ◽  
Kun Bu ◽  
Tingxiang Liu ◽  
Yue Jiao ◽  
...  

Studying land use change and its associated climate effects is important to understand the role of human activities in the regulation of climate systems. By coupling remote sensing measurements with a high-resolution regional climate model, this study evaluated the land surface changes and corresponding climate impact caused by planting rice on saline-alkali land in western Jilin (China). Our results showed that paddy field expansion became the dominant land use change in western Jilin from 2015 to 2019, 25% of which was converted from saline-alkali land; this percentage is expected to increase in the near future. We found that saline-alkali land reclamation to paddy fields significantly increased the leaf area index (LAI), particularly in July and August, whereas it decreased albedo, mainly in May and June. Our simulation results showed that planting rice on saline-alkali land can help decrease the air temperature and increase the relative humidity. The temperature and humidity effects showed different magnitudes during the growing season and were most significant in July and August, followed by September and June. The nonradiative process, rather than the radiative process, played a dominant role in regulating the regional climate in this case, and the biophysical competition between evapotranspiration (ET) and albedo determined the temperature and relative humidity response differences during the growing season.

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 405-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Richter ◽  
C. Döring ◽  
M. Jansen ◽  
O. Panferov ◽  
U. Spank ◽  
...  

Abstract. Among the different bioenergy sources short rotation coppices (SRC) with poplar and willow trees are one of the mostly promising options in Europe. SRC not only provide woody biomass, but often additional ecosystem services. One known shortcoming is the possible negative effect on groundwater recharge, caused by potentially higher rates of evapotranspiration compared to annual crops. An assessment of land use change by means of hydrological models and taking into account the changing climate can help to minimize negative and maximize positive ecological effects at regional and local scales, e.g. to regional climate and/or to adjacent ecosystems. The present study implemented the hydrological model system WaSim for such assessment. The hydrological analysis requires the adequate description of the vegetation cover to simulate the processes like soil evaporation, interception evaporation and transpiration. The uncertainties in the vegetation parameterisations might result in implausible model results. The present study shows that leaf area index (LAI), stomatal resistance (Rsc) as well as the beginning and length of the growing season are the sensitive parameters when investigating the effects of an enhanced cultivation of SRC on water budget or on groundwater recharge. Mostly sensitive is the description of the beginning of the growing season. When this estimation is wrong, the accuracy of LAI and Rsc description plays a minor role. The analyses done here illustrate that the use of locally measured vegetation parameters like maximal LAI and meteorological variables like air temperature, to estimate the beginning of the growing season, produce better results than literature data or data from remote network stations. However the direct implementation of locally measured or literature data on e.g. stomatal resistance is not always advisable. The adjustment of locally vegetation parameterisation shows the best model evaluation. Additionally the adjusted course of LAI and Rsc is less sensitive to different estimates for leaf unfolding, due to a slower increase in spring compared to a step functional annual course.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinli Ke ◽  
Enjun Ma ◽  
Yongwei Yuan

It has been shown that land use change in urbanized region, especially urban land expansion, will influence regional climate. However, there has been very little research on the climate effects of the future land use change in a rapidly urbanizing region. Taking the southern part of Jiangsu province in China as the study area and through a scenario analysis, the influence of land use change on the regional temperature was analyzed from the perspective of land surface radiation budget and energy balance. The results indicated that (1) the monthly average temperature is significantly higher under the Rapid Economic Growth (REG) scenario than under the Cooperate Environmental Sustainability (CES) scenario in 2050, especially in the hottest month (July). (2) The range of high-temperature regions is much wider under the REG scenario than it is under the CES scenario in 2050. (3) The land surface net radiation and latent heat flux are two key factors through which land use change influences the regional temperature in the study area, and the latent heat flux plays a dominant role. (4) Land use change mainly influences the land surface net radiation by altering the land surface albedo and emissivity. These results are helpful to mitigate regional climate change effects caused by land use change.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiming Jin ◽  
Shihua Lu ◽  
Suosuo Li ◽  
Norman L. Miller

Observational data show that the remotely sensed leaf area index (LAI) has a significant downward trend over the east Tibetan Plateau (TP), while a warming trend is found in the same area. Further analysis indicates that this warming trend mainly results from the nighttime warming. The Single-Column Atmosphere Model (SCAM) version 3.1 developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research is used to investigate the role of land use change in the TP local climate system and isolate the contribution of land use change to the warming. Two sets of SCAM simulations were performed at the Xinghai station that is located near the center of the TP Sanjiang (three rivers) Nature Reserve where the downward LAI trend is largest. These simulations were forced with the high and low LAIs. The modeling results indicate that, when the LAI changes from high to low, the daytime temperature has a slight decrease, while the nighttime temperature increases significantly, which is consistent with the observations. The modeling results further show that the lower surface roughness length plays a significant role in affecting the nighttime temperature increase.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 1017-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Zabel ◽  
W. Mauser ◽  
T. Marke ◽  
A. Pfeiffer ◽  
G. Zängl ◽  
...  

Abstract. Downstream models are often used in order to study regional impacts of climate and climate change on the land surface. For this purpose, they are usually driven offline (i.e., 1-way) with results from regional climate models (RCMs). However, the offline approach does not allow for feedbacks between these models. Thereby, the land surface of the downstream model is usually completely different to the land surface which is used within the RCM. Thus, this study aims at investigating the inconsistencies that arise when driving a downstream model offline instead of interactively coupled with the RCM, due to different feedbacks from the use of different land surface models (LSM). Therefore, two physically based LSMs which developed from different disciplinary backgrounds are compared in our study: while the NOAH-LSM was developed for the use within RCMs, PROMET was originally developed to answer hydrological questions on the local to regional scale. Thereby, the models use different physical formulations on different spatial scales and different parameterizations of the same land surface processes that lead to inconsistencies when driving PROMET offline with RCM output. Processes that contribute to these inconsistencies are, as described in this study, net radiation due to land use related albedo and emissivity differences, the redistribution of this net radiation over sensible and latent heat, for example, due to different assumptions about land use impermeability or soil hydraulic reasons caused by different plant and soil parameterizations. As a result, simulated evapotranspiration, e.g., shows considerable differences of max. 280 mm yr−1. For a full interactive coupling (i.e., 2-way) between PROMET and the atmospheric part of the RCM, PROMET returns the land surface energy fluxes to the RCM and, thus, provides the lower boundary conditions for the RCM subsequently. Accordingly, the RCM responses to the replacement of the LSM with overall increased annual mean near surface air temperature (+1 K) and less annual precipitation (−56 mm) with different spatial and temporal behaviour. Finally, feedbacks can set up positive and negative effects on simulated evapotranspiration, resulting in a decrease of evapotranspiration South of the Alps a moderate increase North of the Alps. The inconsistencies are quantified and account for up to 30% from July to Semptember when focused to an area around Milan, Italy.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1551
Author(s):  
Jiaqi Zhang ◽  
Xiangjin Shen ◽  
Yanji Wang ◽  
Ming Jiang ◽  
Xianguo Lu

The area and vegetation coverage of forests in Changbai Mountain of China have changed significantly during the past decades. Understanding the effects of forests and forest coverage change on regional climate is important for predicting climate change in Changbai Mountain. Based on the satellite-derived land surface temperature (LST), albedo, evapotranspiration, leaf area index, and land-use data, this study analyzed the influences of forests and forest coverage changes on summer LST in Changbai Mountain. Results showed that the area and vegetation coverage of forests increased in Changbai Mountain from 2003 to 2017. Compared with open land, forests could decrease the summer daytime LST (LSTD) and nighttime LST (LSTN) by 1.10 °C and 0.07 °C, respectively. The increase in forest coverage could decrease the summer LSTD and LSTN by 0.66 °C and 0.04 °C, respectively. The forests and increasing forest coverage had cooling effects on summer temperature, mainly by decreasing daytime temperature in Changbai Mountain. The daytime cooling effect is mainly related to the increased latent heat flux caused by increasing evapotranspiration. Our results suggest that the effects of forest coverage change on climate should be considered in climate models for accurately simulating regional climate change in Changbai Mountain of China.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hoffmann ◽  
Diana Rechid ◽  
Vanessa Reinhart ◽  
Christina Asmus ◽  
Edouard L. Davin ◽  
...  

<p>Land-use and land cover (LULC) are continuously changing due to environmental changes and anthropogenic activities. Many observational and modeling studies show that LULC changes are important drivers altering land surface feedbacks and land-atmosphere exchange processes that have substantial impact on climate on the regional and local scale. Yet, most long-term regional climate modeling studies do not account for these changes. Therefore, within the WCRP CORDEX Flagship Pilot Study LUCAS (Land Use Change Across Scales) a new workflow was developed to generate high-resolution annual land cover change time series based on past reconstructions and future projections. First, the high-resolution global land cover dataset ESA-CCI LC (~300 m resolution) is aggregated and converted to a 0.1° resolution, fractional plant functional type (PFT) dataset. Second, the land use change information from the land-use harmonized dataset (LUH2), provided at 0.25° resolution as input for CMIP6 experiments, is translated into PFT changes employing a newly developed land use translator (LUT). The new LUT was first applied to the EURO-CORDEX domain. The resulting LULC maps for past and future - the LUCAS LUC dataset - can be applied as land use forcing to the next generation RCM simulations for downscaling CMIP6 by the EURO-CORDEX community and in the framework of FPS LUCAS. The dataset includes land cover and land management practices changes important for the regional and local scale such as urbanization and irrigation. The LUCAS LUC workflow is applied to further CORDEX domains, such as Australasia and North America. The resulting past and future land cover changes will be presented, and challenges regarding the application of the new workflow to different regions will be addressed. In addition, issues related to the implementation of the dataset into different RCMs will be discussed.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wantong Li ◽  
Matthias Forkel ◽  
Mirco Migliavacca ◽  
Markus Reichstein ◽  
Sophia Walther ◽  
...  

<p>Terrestrial vegetation couples the global water, energy and carbon exchange between the atmosphere and the land surface. Thereby, vegetation productivity is determined by a multitude of energy- and water-related variables. While the emergent sensitivity of productivity to these variables has been inferred from Earth observations, its temporal evolution during the last decades is unclear, as well as potential changes in response to trends in hydro-climatic conditions. In this study, we analyze the changing sensitivity of global vegetation productivity to hydro-climate conditions by using satellite-observed vegetation indices (i.e. NDVI) at the monthly timescale from 1982–2015. Further, we repeat the analysis with simulated leaf area index and gross primary productivity from the TRENDY vegetation models, and contrast the findings with the observation-based results. We train a random forest model to predict anomalies of productivity from a comprehensive set of hydro-meteorological variables (temperature, solar radiation, vapor pressure deficit, surface and root-zone soil moisture and precipitation), and to infer the sensitivity to each of these variables. By training models from temporal independent subsets of the data we detect the evolution of sensitivity across time. Results based on observations show that vegetation sensitivity to energy- and water-related variables has significantly changed in many regions across the globe. In particular we find decreased (increased) sensitivity to temperature in very warm (cold) regions. Thereby, the magnitude of the sensitivity tends to differ between the early and late growing seasons. Likewise, we find changing sensitivity to root-zone soil moisture with increases predominantly in the early growing season and decreases in the late growing season. For better understanding the mechanisms behind the sensitivity changes, we analyse land-cover changes, hydro-climatic trends, and abrupt disturbances (e.g. drought, heatwave events or fires could result in breaking points of sensitivity evolution in the local interpretation). In summary, this study sheds light on how and where vegetation productivity changes its response to the drivers under climate change, which can help to understand possibly resulting changes in spatial and temporal patterns of land carbon uptake.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 2297-2309 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Schmitt ◽  
M. Bahn ◽  
G. Wohlfahrt ◽  
U. Tappeiner ◽  
A. Cernusca

Abstract. Changes in land use and management have been strongly affecting mountain grassland, however, their effects on the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) and its components have not yet been well documented. We analysed chamber-based estimates of NEE, gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (R) and light use efficiency (LUE) of six mountain grasslands differing in land use and management, and thus site fertility, for the growing seasons of 2002 to 2008. The main findings of the study are that: (1) land use and management affected seasonal NEE, GPP and R, which all decreased from managed to unmanaged grasslands; (2) these changes were explained by differences in leaf area index (LAI), biomass and leaf-area-independent changes that were likely related to photosynthetic physiology; (3) diurnal variations of NEE were primarily controlled by photosynthetically active photon flux density and soil and air temperature; seasonal variations were associated with changes in LAI; (4) parameters of light response curves were generally closely related to each other, and the ratio of R at a reference temperature/ maximum GPP was nearly constant across the sites; (5) similarly to our study, maximum GPP and R for other grasslands on the globe decreased with decreasing land use intensity, while their ratio remained remarkably constant. We conclude that decreasing intensity of management and, in particular, abandonment of mountain grassland lead to a decrease in NEE and its component processes. While GPP and R are generally closely coupled during most of the growing season, GPP is more immediately and strongly affected by land management (mowing, grazing) and season. This suggests that management and growing season length, as well as their possible future changes, may play an important role for the annual C balance of mountain grassland.


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