Papers on land use effect on climate

This is a list of papers on land use effect on climate. The list is not complete, and will most likely be updated in the future in order to make it more thorough and more representative.

Modelling the effects of land-use/land-cover changes on the near-surface atmosphere in southern South America – Beltrán-Przekurat et al. (2011) “A fully coupled atmospheric-biospheric regional climate model, GEMRAMS, was used to evaluate potential effects of land-use/land-cover changes (LULCC) on near-surface atmosphere over a southern South American domain at seasonal time scales. In GEMRAMS, leaf area index and canopy conductance are computed based on modelled temperature, solar radiation, and the water status of the soil and air, allowing a two-way interaction between canopy and atmosphere. Several austral spring-early summer simulations were conducted using land cover representing current (i.e. agricultural landscape), natural (i.e. before European settlement), and afforestation scenarios for three periods associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions. The shift to agriculture resulted in a generalized decrease in albedo, reducing the available energy at the near-surface. The energy partitioning between latent and sensible heat fluxes changed, leading to distinct temperature responses. A shift from grass to agriculture led to cooler and wetter near-surface atmospheric conditions. Warmer temperatures resulted from the conversion of wooded grasslands or forest to agriculture. The LULCC-induced signal was spatially heterogeneous and with a seasonal component associated with vegetation phenology. A significant decrease in maximum temperatures in the southern and central Pampas led to a decrease in the diurnal temperature range. Basing on some observational studies in this region our results suggest a potential strong influence of LULCC on the maximum temperatures in central Argentina in summer. Afforestation resulted overall in cooler temperatures. For both LULCC scenarios the direction of the energy fluxes and temperature changes remained in general the same in two extreme ENSO years, although for some vegetation conversions the signal reversed direction. Overall, the impacts were enhanced during a dry year, but the response also depended on the vegetation types involved in the conversion. The effects on precipitation were insignificant in the agriculture-conversion scenario and a general increase was found in the afforested scenario.” Adriana Beltrán-Przekurat, Roger A. Pielke Sr, Joseph L. Eastman, Michael B. Coughenour, International Journal of Climatology, DOI: 10.1002/joc.2346.

A dampened land use change climate response towards the tropics – van der Molen et al. (2011) “In climate simulations we find a pronounced meridional (equator to pole) gradient of climate response to land cover change. Climate response approaches zero in the tropics, and increases towards the poles. The meridional gradient in climate response to land cover change results from damping feedbacks in the tropics, rather than from polar amplification. The main cause for the damping in the tropics is the decrease in cloud cover after deforestation, resulting in increased incoming radiation at the surface and a lower planetary albedo, both counteracting the increase in surface albedo with deforestation. In our simulations, deforestation was also associated with a decrease in sensible heat flux but not a clear signal in evaporation. Meridional differences in climate response have implications for attribution of observed climate change, as well as for climate change mitigation strategies.” M. K. van der Molen, B. J. J. M. van den Hurk and W. Hazeleger, Climate Dynamics, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-011-1018-0. [Full text]

Effect of including land-use driven radiative forcing of the surface albedo of land on climate response in the 16th–21st centuries – Eliseev & Mokhov (2011) “A change in ecosystem types, such as through natural-vegetation-agriculture conversion, alters the surface albedo and triggers attendant shortwave radiative forcing (RF). This paper describes numerical experiments performed using the climate model (CM) of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Russian Academy of Sciences, for the 16th–21st centuries; this model simulated the response to a change in the contents of greenhouse gases (tropospheric and stratospheric), sulfate aerosols, solar constant, as well as the response to change in surface albedo of land due to natural-vegetation-agriculture conversion. These forcing estimates relied on actual data until the late 20th century. In the 21st century, the agricultural area was specified according to scenarios of the Land Use Harmonization project and other anthropogenic impacts were specified using SRES scenarios. The change in the surface vegetation during conversion from natural vegetation to agriculture triggers a cooling RF in most regions except for those of natural semiarid vegetation. The global and annual average RF derived from the IAP RAS CM in late 20th century is −0.11 W m⁻². Including the land-use driven RF in IAP RAS CM appreciably reconciled the model calculations to observations in this historical period. For instance, in addition to the net climate warming, IAP RAS CM predicted an annually average cooling and reduction in precipitation in the subtropics of Eurasia and North America and in Amazonia and central Africa, as well as a local maximum in annually average and summertime warming in East China. The land-use driven RF alters the sign in the dependence that the amplitude of the annual cycle of the near-surface atmospheric temperature has on the annually averaged temperature. One reason for the decrease in precipitation as a result of a change in albedo due to land use may be the suppression of the convective activity in the atmosphere in the warm period (throughout the year in the tropics) and the corresponding decrease in convective precipitation. In the 21st century, the effect that the land-use driven RF has on the climate response for scenarios of anthropogenic impact is generally small.” A. V. Eliseev and I. I. Mokhov, Izvestiya Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, Volume 47, Number 1, 15-30, DOI: 10.1134/S0001433811010075.

The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human-induced global land-use change over the past 12,000 years – Goldewijk et al. (2011) “Aim: This paper presents a tool for long-term global change studies; it is an update of the History Database of the Global Environment (HYDE) with estimates of some of the underlying demographic and agricultural driving factors. Methods: Historical population, cropland and pasture statistics are combined with satellite information and specific allocation algorithms (which change over time) to create spatially explicit maps, which are fully consistent on a 5′ longitude/latitude grid resolution, and cover the period 10,000 bc to ad 2000. Results: Cropland occupied roughly less than 1% of the global ice-free land area for a long time until ad 1000, similar to the area used for pasture. In the centuries that followed, the share of global cropland increased to 2% in ad 1700 (c. 3 million km2) and 11% in ad 2000 (15 million km2), while the share of pasture area grew from 2% in ad 1700 to 24% in ad 2000 (34 million km2) These profound land-use changes have had, and will continue to have, quite considerable consequences for global biogeochemical cycles, and subsequently global climate change. Main conclusions: Some researchers suggest that humans have shifted from living in the Holocene (emergence of agriculture) into the Anthropocene (humans capable of changing the Earth’s atmosphere) since the start of the Industrial Revolution. But in the light of the sheer size and magnitude of some historical land-use changes (e.g. as result of the depopulation of Europe due to the Black Death in the 14th century and the aftermath of the colonization of the Americas in the 16th century) we believe that this point might have occurred earlier in time. While there are still many uncertainties and gaps in our knowledge about the importance of land use (change) in the global biogeochemical cycle, we hope that this database can help global (climate) change modellers to close parts of this gap.” Kees Klein Goldewijk, Arthur Beusen, Gerard van Drecht, Martine de Vos, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Volume 20, Issue 1, pages 73–86, January 2011, DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x. [Full text]

Investigating the climate impacts of global land cover change in the community climate system model – Lawrence & Chase (2010) “Recently, (Pitman et al., 2009) found a wide range of bio-geophysical climate impacts from historical land cover change when modelled in a suite of current global climate models (GCMs). The bio-geophysical climate impacts of human land cover change, however, have been investigated by a wide range of general circulation modelling, regional climate modelling, and observational studies. In this regard the IPCC 4th assessment report specifies radiative cooling of 0.2 W/m ² as the dominant global impact of human land cover change since 1750, but states this has a low to medium level of scientific understanding. To further contribute to the understanding of the possible climatic impacts of anthropogenic land cover change, we have performed a series of land cover change experiments with the community land model (CLM) within the community climate system model (CCSM). To do this we have developed a new set of potential vegetation land surface parameters to represent land cover change in CLM. The new parameters are consistent with the potential vegetation biome mapping of (Ramankutty and Foley, 1999), with the plant functional types (PFTs) and plant phenology consistent with the current day Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface parameters of (Lawrence and Chase, 2007). We found that land cover change in CCSM resulted in widespread regional warming of the near surface atmosphere, but with limited global impact on near surface temperatures. The experiments also found changes in precipitation, with drier conditions regionally, but with limited impact on average global precipitation. Analysis of the surface fluxes in the CCSM experiments found the current day warming was predominantly driven by changes in surface hydrology through reduced evapo-transpiration and latent heat flux, with the radiative forcing playing a secondary role. We show that these finding are supported by a wide range of observational field studies, satellite studies and regional and global climate modelling studies.” Peter J. Lawrence, Thomas N. Chase, Journal of Climatology, Volume 30, Issue 13, pages 2066–2087, 15 November 2010, DOI: 10.1002/joc.2061. [Full text]

Anthropogenic land cover changes in a GCM with surface albedo changes based on MODIS data – Kvalevåg et al. (2010) “This study uses a global climate model (GCM) to investigate the climate response at the surface and in the atmosphere caused by land use change. The climate simulations are performed with the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Land Model 3.5 (CLM3.5) coupled to the Community Atmosphere Model 3 (CAM3) and a slab ocean model. We use the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface albedo product to represent surface albedo in the CLM3.5 for both present day and to reconstruct the surface albedo for natural pre-agriculture conditions. We compare simulations including vegetation changes and surface albedo changes to simulations including only surface albedo changes. We find that the surface albedo change is most dominant in temperate regions while the change in evapotranspiration drives the climate response in the tropics. Our results show that land cover changes contribute to an annual global warming of 0.04 K, but there are large regional differences. In North America and Europe, the surface temperatures decrease by − 0.11 and − 0.09 K, respectively, while in India the surface temperatures increase by 0.09 K. When we fix the vegetation cover in the simulations and let the climate changes be driven only by the differences in surface albedo, the annual global mean surface warming is reduced, and all three regions are now associated with surface cooling. We also show that the surface albedo value for cropland is of major importance in climate simulations of land cover change. The surface albedo effect is the main driving mechanism when the change in surface albedo between agricultural and natural vegetation is substantial. Finally, we argue that differences in the surface albedo value of cropland implemented in earlier land use change studies explain the diversity in the sign and magnitude of the climate response.” Maria Malene Kvalevåg, Gunnar Myhre, Gordon Bonan, Samuel Levis, International Journal of Climatology, Volume 30, Issue 13, pages 2105–2117, 15 November 2010, DOI: 10.1002/joc.2012. [Full text]

Impacts of land use land cover on temperature trends over the continental United States: assessment using the North American Regional Reanalysis – Fall et al. (2010) “We investigate the sensitivity of surface temperature trends to land use land cover change (LULC) over the conterminous United States (CONUS) using the observation minus reanalysis (OMR) approach. We estimated the OMR trends for the 1979–2003 period from the US Historical Climate Network (USHCN), and the NCEP-NCAR North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR). We used a new mean square differences (MSDs)-based assessment for the comparisons between temperature anomalies from observations and interpolated reanalysis data. Trends of monthly mean temperature anomalies show a strong agreement, especially between adjusted USHCN and NARR (r = 0.9 on average) and demonstrate that NARR captures the climate variability at different time scales. OMR trend results suggest that, unlike findings from studies based on the global reanalysis (NCEP/NCAR reanalysis), NARR often has a larger warming trend than adjusted observations (on average, 0.28 and 0.27 °C/decade respectively). OMR trends were found to be sensitive to land cover types. We analysed decadal OMR trends as a function of land types using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and new National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 1992–2001 Retrofit Land Cover Change. The magnitude of OMR trends obtained from the NLDC is larger than the one derived from the ‘static’ AVHRR. Moreover, land use conversion often results in more warming than cooling. Overall, our results confirm the robustness of the OMR method for detecting non-climatic changes at the station level, evaluating the impacts of adjustments performed on raw observations, and most importantly, providing a quantitative estimate of additional warming trends associated with LULC changes at local and regional scales. As most of the warming trends that we identify can be explained on the basis of LULC changes, we suggest that in addition to considering the greenhouse gases–driven radiative forcings, multi-decadal and longer climate models simulations must further include LULC changes.” Souleymane Fall, Dev Niyogi, Alexander Gluhovsky, Roger A. Pielke Sr, Eugenia Kalnay, Gilbert Rochon, International Journal of Climatology, Volume 30, Issue 13, pages 1980–1993, 15 November 2010, DOI: 10.1002/joc.1996. [Full text]

How well do we know the flux of CO₂ from land-use change? – Houghton (2010) “Five new estimates of global net annual emissions of carbon from land use and land-use change collectively describe a gradually increasing trend in emissions, from ∼0.6 PgC yr⁻¹ in 1850 to ∼1.3 PgC yr⁻¹ in the period 1950–2005, with an annual range that varies between ±0.2 and ±0.4 PgC yr⁻¹ of the mean. All estimates agree in the upward trend from 1850 to ∼1950 but not thereafter. In recent decades, when rates of land-use change and biomass density should be better known than in the past, the estimates are more variable. Most analyses have used three quasi-independent estimates of land-use change that are based on national and international agricultural and forestry data of limited accuracy in many countries. Further, the estimates of biomass used in the analyses have a common but limited literature base, which fails to address the spatial variability of biomass density within ecosystems. In contrast to the sources of information that have been used to date, a combination of existing ground and remote sensing data are available to determine with far higher accuracy rates of land-use change, aboveground biomass density, and, hence, the net flux of carbon from land use and land-use change.” R. A. Houghton, Tellus B, Volume 62, Issue 5, pages 337–351, November 2010, DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0889.2010.00473.x. [Full text]

Forestation of boreal peatlands: Impacts of changing albedo and greenhouse gas fluxes on radiative forcing – Lohila et al. (2010) “We estimated the magnitude of the radiative forcing (RF) due to changes in albedo following the forestation of peatlands, and calculated the net RF by taking into account the changes in both the albedo and the greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes during one forest rotation. Data on radiation, tree biomass, and soil GHG fluxes were combined with models for canopy cover, tree carbon accumulation, and the RF due to increased atmospheric GHG concentrations for four typical site cases in Finland covering two soil nutrient levels in the south and north of the country. We also studied the observed long-term surface temperatures to detect any indications of drainage-induced effects. The magnitude of the albedo-induced RF was similar to that caused by the carbon sequestration of the growing trees. At three site cases out of four the drainage induced a cooling or negative RF, the tendency for cooling being higher at sites with a higher nutrient level. The differences in albedo-induced RF mainly arose from the spring season due to (1) the different snow cover duration in the south versus the north, and (2) the different albedos of drained and undrained snow covered peatlands. An increase in the maximum daily temperatures was observed in April in southern Finland, where the most intensive drainage practices have taken place, suggesting that forestry drainage has potentially affected the local climate. Our results show that the decreasing albedo resulting from peatland forestation contributes significantly to the RF, balancing out or even exceeding the cooling effect due to the changing GHG fluxes.” Lohila, A., K. Minkkinen, J. Laine, I. Savolainen, J.-P. Tuovinen, L. Korhonen, T. Laurila, H. Tietäväinen, and A. Laaksonen (2010), J. Geophys. Res., 115, G04011, doi:10.1029/2010JG001327.

Uncertainties in climate responses to past land cover change: First results from the LUCID intercomparison study – Pitman et al. (2009) “Seven climate models were used to explore the biogeophysical impacts of human-induced land cover change (LCC) at regional and global scales. The imposed LCC led to statistically significant decreases in the northern hemisphere summer latent heat flux in three models, and increases in three models. Five models simulated statistically significant cooling in summer in near-surface temperature over regions of LCC and one simulated warming. There were few significant changes in precipitation. Our results show no common remote impacts of LCC. The lack of consistency among the seven models was due to: 1) the implementation of LCC despite agreed maps of agricultural land, 2) the representation of crop phenology, 3) the parameterisation of albedo, and 4) the representation of evapotranspiration for different land cover types. This study highlights a dilemma: LCC is regionally significant, but it is not feasible to impose a common LCC across multiple models for the next IPCC assessment.” Pitman, A. J., et al. (2009), Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L14814, doi:10.1029/2009GL039076. [Full text]

Carbon cycling under 300 years of land use change: Importance of the secondary vegetation sink – Shevliakova et al. (2009) “We have developed a dynamic land model (LM3V) able to simulate ecosystem dynamics and exchanges of water, energy, and CO₂ between land and atmosphere. LM3V is specifically designed to address the consequences of land use and land management changes including cropland and pasture dynamics, shifting cultivation, logging, fire, and resulting patterns of secondary regrowth. Here we analyze the behavior of LM3V, forced with the output from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) atmospheric model AM2, observed precipitation data, and four historic scenarios of land use change for 1700–2000. Our analysis suggests a net terrestrial carbon source due to land use activities from 1.1 to 1.3 GtC/a during the 1990s, where the range is due to the difference in the historic cropland distribution. This magnitude is substantially smaller than previous estimates from other models, largely due to our estimates of a secondary vegetation sink of 0.35 to 0.6 GtC/a in the 1990s and decelerating agricultural land clearing since the 1960s. For the 1990s, our estimates for the pastures’ carbon flux vary from a source of 0.37 to a sink of 0.15 GtC/a, and for the croplands our model shows a carbon source of 0.6 to 0.9 GtC/a. Our process-based model suggests a smaller net deforestation source than earlier bookkeeping models because it accounts for decelerated net conversion of primary forest to agriculture and for stronger secondary vegetation regrowth in tropical regions. The overall uncertainty is likely to be higher than the range reported here because of uncertainty in the biomass recovery under changing ambient conditions, including atmospheric CO₂ concentration, nutrients availability, and climate.” Shevliakova, E., S. W. Pacala, S. Malyshev, G. C. Hurtt, P. C. D. Milly, J. P. Caspersen, L. T. Sentman, J. P. Fisk, C. Wirth, and C. Crevoisier (2009), Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 23, GB2022, doi:10.1029/2007GB003176. [Full text]

Influence of modern land cover on the climate of the United States – Diffenbaugh (2009) “I have used a high-resolution nested climate modeling system to test the sensitivity of regional and local climate to the modern non-urban land cover distribution of the continental United States. The dominant climate response is cooling of surface air temperatures, particularly during the warm-season. Areas of statistically significant cooling include areas of the Great Plains where crop/mixed farming has replaced short grass, areas of the Midwest and southern Texas where crop/mixed farming has replaced interrupted forest, and areas of the western United States containing irrigated crops. This statistically significant warm-season cooling is driven by changes in both surface moisture balance and surface albedo, with changes in surface moisture balance dominating in the Great Plains and western United States, changes in surface albedo dominating in the Midwest, and both effects contributing to warm-season cooling over southern Texas. The simulated changes in surface moisture and energy fluxes also influence the warm-season atmospheric dynamics, creating greater moisture availability in the lower atmosphere and enhanced uplift aloft, consistent with the enhanced warm-season precipitation seen in the simulation with modern land cover. The local and regional climate response is of a similar magnitude to that projected for future greenhouse gas concentrations, suggesting that the climatic effects of land cover change should be carefully considered when crafting policies for regulating land use and for managing anthropogenic forcing of the climate system.” Noah S. Diffenbaugh, Climate Dynamics, Volume 33, Numbers 7-8, 945-958, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-009-0566-z. [Full text]

Surface temperature cooling trends and negative radiative forcing due to land use change toward greenhouse farming in southeastern Spain – Campra et al. (2008) “Greenhouse horticulture has experienced in recent decades a dramatic spatial expansion in the semiarid province of Almeria, in southeastern (SE) Spain, reaching a continuous area of 26,000 ha in 2007, the widest greenhouse area in the world. A significant surface air temperature trend of −0.3°C decade⁻¹ in this area during the period 1983–2006 is first time reported here. This local cooling trend shows no correlation with Spanish regional and global warming trends. Radiative forcing (RF) is widely used to assess and compare the climate change mechanisms. Surface shortwave RF (SWRF) caused through clearing of pasture land for greenhouse farming development in this area is estimated here. We present the first empirical evidences to support the working hypothesis of the development of a localized forcing created by surface albedo change to explain the differences in temperature trends among stations either inside or far from this agricultural land. SWRF was estimated from satellite-retrieved surface albedo data and calculated shortwave outgoing fluxes associated with either uses of land under typical incoming solar radiation. Outgoing fluxes were calculated from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance data. A difference in mean annual surface albedo of +0.09 was measured comparing greenhouses surface to a typical pasture land. Strong negative forcing associated with land use change was estimated all year round, ranging from −5.0 W m⁻² to −34.8 W m⁻², with a mean annual value of −19.8 W m⁻². According to our data of SWRF and local temperatures trends, recent development of greenhouse horticulture in this area may have masked local warming signals associated to greenhouse gases increase.” Campra, P., M. Garcia, Y. Canton, and A. Palacios-Orueta (2008), J. Geophys. Res., 113, D18109, doi:10.1029/2008JD009912. [Full text]

Radiative forcing over the conterminous United – Barnes & Roy (2008) “Recently available satellite land cover land use (LCLU) and albedo data are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 1973 to 2000 on surface albedo and radiative forcing for 36 ecoregions covering 43% of the conterminous United States (CONUS). Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow-free broadband albedo values are derived from Landsat LCLU classification maps located using a stratified random sampling methodology to estimate ecoregion estimates of LCLU induced albedo change and surface radiative forcing. The results illustrate that radiative forcing due to LCLU change may be disguised when spatially and temporally explicit data sets are not used. The radiative forcing due to contemporary LCLU albedo change varies geographically in sign and magnitude, with the most positive forcings (up to 0.284 Wm⁻²) due to conversion of agriculture to other LCLU types, and the most negative forcings (as low as −0.247 Wm⁻²) due to forest loss. For the 36 ecoregions considered a small net positive forcing (i.e., warming) of 0.012 Wm⁻² is estimated.” Barnes, C. A., and D. P. Roy (2008), Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L09706, doi:10.1029/2008GL033567. [Full text]

Modeled Impact of Anthropogenic Land Cover Change on Climate – Findell et al. (2007) “Equilibrium experiments with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory’s climate model are used to investigate the impact of anthropogenic land cover change on climate. Regions of altered land cover include large portions of Europe, India, eastern China, and the eastern United States. Smaller areas of change are present in various tropical regions. This study focuses on the impacts of biophysical changes associated with the land cover change (albedo, root and stomatal properties, roughness length), which is almost exclusively a conversion from forest to grassland in the model; the effects of irrigation or other water management practices and the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide changes associated with land cover conversion are not included in these experiments. The model suggests that observed land cover changes have little or no impact on globally averaged climatic variables (e.g., 2-m air temperature is 0.008 K warmer in a simulation with 1990 land cover compared to a simulation with potential natural vegetation cover). Differences in the annual mean climatic fields analyzed did not exhibit global field significance. Within some of the regions of land cover change, however, there are relatively large changes of many surface climatic variables. These changes are highly significant locally in the annual mean and in most months of the year in eastern Europe and northern India. They can be explained mainly as direct and indirect consequences of model-prescribed increases in surface albedo, decreases in rooting depth, and changes of stomatal control that accompany deforestation.” Findell, Kirsten L., Elena Shevliakova, P. C. D. Milly, Ronald J. Stouffer, 2007, J. Climate, 20, 3621–3634, doi: 10.1175/JCLI4185.1. [Full text]

Radiative forcing due to anthropogenic vegetation change based on MODIS surface albedo data – Myhre et al. (2005) “In this study we use the capabilities of the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface product to estimate the radiative forcing due to surface albedo changes caused by anthropogenic vegetation changes. We improve the representation of the present surface albedo by using data retrieved from MODIS. The change in surface albedo is based on the current vegetation land cover from MODIS, the MODIS surface albedos for those vegetation types, and a data set for potential natural vegetation. We arrive at a radiative forcing due to anthropogenic vegetation changes of −0.09 Wm−2 since pre-agriculture times to present, weaker than most earlier published results for this climate forcing mechanism. This is mainly due to a lower surface albedo associated with cropland and further with the use of MODIS data to allow us to constrain the surface albedo change.” Myhre, G., M. M. Kvalevåg, and C. B. Schaaf (2005), Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L21410, doi:10.1029/2005GL024004. [Full text]

Impacts of future land cover changes on atmospheric CO₂ and climate – Sitch et al. (2005) “Climate-carbon cycle model CLIMBER2-LPJ is run with consistent fields of future fossil fuel CO₂ emissions and geographically explicit land cover changes for four Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) scenarios, A1B, A2, B1, and B2. By 2100, increases in global mean temperatures range between 1.7°C (B1) and 2.7°C (A2) relative to the present day. Biogeochemical warming associated with future tropical land conversion is larger than its corresponding biogeophysical cooling effect in A2, and amplifies biogeophysical warming associated with Northern Hemisphere land abandonment in B1. In 2100, simulated atmospheric CO₂ ranged from 592 ppm (B1) to 957 ppm (A2). Future CO₂ concentrations simulated with the model are higher than previously reported for the same SRES emission scenarios, indicating the effect of future CO₂ emission scenarios and land cover changes may hitherto be underestimated. The maximum contribution of land cover changes to future atmospheric CO₂ among the four SRES scenarios represents a modest 127 ppm, or 22% in relative terms, with the remainder attributed to fossil fuel CO₂ emissions.” Sitch, S., V. Brovkin, W. von Bloh, D. van Vuuren, B. Eickhout, and A. Ganopolski (2005), Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 19, GB2013, doi:10.1029/2004GB002311. [Full text]

Natural and anthropogenic climate change: incorporating historical land cover change, vegetation dynamics and the global carbon cycle – Matthews et al. (2004) “This study explores natural and anthropogenic influences on the climate system, with an emphasis on the biogeophysical and biogeochemical effects of historical land cover change. The biogeophysical effect of land cover change is first subjected to a detailed sensitivity analysis in the context of the UVic Earth System Climate Model, a global climate model of intermediate complexity. Results show a global cooling in the range of –0.06 to –0.22 °C, though this effect is not found to be detectable in observed temperature trends. We then include the effects of natural forcings (volcanic aerosols, solar insolation variability and orbital changes) and other anthropogenic forcings (greenhouse gases and sulfate aerosols). Transient model runs from the year 1700 to 2000 are presented for each forcing individually as well as for combinations of forcings. We find that the UVic Model reproduces well the global temperature data when all forcings are included. These transient experiments are repeated using a dynamic vegetation model coupled interactively to the UVic Model. We find that dynamic vegetation acts as a positive feedback in the climate system for both the all-forcings and land cover change only model runs. Finally, the biogeochemical effect of land cover change is explored using a dynamically coupled inorganic ocean and terrestrial carbon cycle model. The carbon emissions from land cover change are found to enhance global temperatures by an amount that exceeds the biogeophysical cooling. The net effect of historical land cover change over this period is to increase global temperature by 0.15 °C.” H.D. Matthews, A.J. Weaver, K.J. Meissner, N.P. Gillett and M. Eby, Climate Dynamics, Volume 22, Number 5, 461-479, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-004-0392-2. [Full text]

Role of land cover changes for atmospheric CO₂ increase and climate change during the last 150 years – Brovkin et al. (2004) “We assess the role of changing natural (volcanic, aerosol, insolation) and anthropogenic (CO₂ emissions, land cover) forcings on the global climate system over the last 150 years using an earth system model of intermediate complexity, CLIMBER-2. We apply several datasets of historical land-use reconstructions: the cropland dataset by Ramankutty & Foley (1999) (R&F), the HYDE land cover dataset of Klein Goldewijk (2001), and the land-use emissions data from Houghton & Hackler (2002). Comparison between the simulated and observed temporal evolution of atmospheric CO₂ and δ¹³CO₂ are used to evaluate these datasets. To check model uncertainty, CLIMBER-2 was coupled to the more complex Lund–Potsdam–Jena (LPJ) dynamic global vegetation model. In simulation with R&F dataset, biogeophysical mechanisms due to land cover changes tend to decrease global air temperature by 0.26°C, while biogeochemical mechanisms act to warm the climate by 0.18°C. The net effect on climate is negligible on a global scale, but pronounced over the land in the temperate and high northern latitudes where a cooling due to an increase in land surface albedo offsets the warming due to land-use CO₂ emissions. Land cover changes led to estimated increases in atmospheric CO₂ of between 22 and 43 ppmv. Over the entire period 1800–2000, simulated δ¹³CO₂ with HYDE compares most favourably with ice core during 1850–1950 and Cape Grim data, indicating preference of earlier land clearance in HYDE over R&F. In relative terms, land cover forcing corresponds to 25–49% of the observed growth in atmospheric CO₂. This contribution declined from 36–60% during 1850–1960 to 4–35% during 1960–2000. CLIMBER-2-LPJ simulates the land cover contribution to atmospheric CO₂ growth to decrease from 68% during 1900–1960 to 12% in the 1980s. Overall, our simulations show a decline in the relative role of land cover changes for atmospheric CO₂ increase during the last 150 years.” Victor Brovkin, Stephen Sitch, Werner Von Bloh, Martin Claussen, Eva Bauer, Wolfgang Cramer, Global Change Biology, Volume 10, Issue 8, pages 1253–1266, August 2004, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2004.00812.x. [Full text]

Assessing climate forcings of the Earth system for the past millennium – Bauer et al. (2003) “The effects of natural and anthropogenic forcings (solar activity, volcanism, atmospheric CO₂ concentration, deforestation) on climate changes are estimated with the Earth system model of intermediate complexity, CLIMBER-2, for the past millennium. Simulated surface air temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere from the combined forcing correlate reasonably well with paleoclimatic data (r = 0.70). The largest negative anomalies occur when insolation minima coincide with volcanic eruptions. Anthropogenic forcings impose additional climate changes after 1850. The increasing warming from increasing CO₂ concentrations is attenuated by the cooling effect from deforestation. Results from differently combined forcings suggest that the relatively cool climate in the second half of 19th century is largely attributable to cooling from deforestation.” Bauer, E., M. Claussen, V. Brovkin, and A. Huenerbein (2003), Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(6), 1276, doi:10.1029/2002GL016639. [Full text]

Radiative forcing of climate by historical land cover change – Matthews et al. (2003) “The radiative effect of changing human land-use patterns on the climate of the past 300 years is discussed through analysis of a series of equilibrium and transient climate simulations using the UVic Earth System Climate Model. Land-surface changes are prescribed through varying land cover type, representing the replacement of natural vegetation by human agricultural systems from 1700 to 1992. All land cover simulations show a cooling in the range of 0.09 to 0.22°C with larger regional changes caused by local positive feedbacks.” Matthews, H. D., A. J. Weaver, M. Eby, and K. J. Meissner (2003), Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(2), 1055, doi:10.1029/2002GL016098. [Full text]