Local temperature response to land cover and management change driven by non-radiative processes

Bright, Ryan M.; Davin, Edouard L.; O’Halloran, T. L.; Pongratz, Julia; Zhao, Kaiguang; Cescatti, Alessandro

doi:10.1038/nclimate3250

Cited by 290 publications

(351 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…with observational data what previous analyses had reported based on model inter-comparisons regarding how models have more difficulties to simulate turbulent fluxes than radiative ones (de Noblet-Ducoudré et al, 2012), despite that the former have been shown to drive the local temperature response to land cover and management (Bright et al, 2017). As can be 10 expected, the seasonal patterns observed in the RS dataset are better simulated than climatic or spatial patterns.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Biophysics and vegetation cover change: a process-based evaluation framework for confronting land surface models with satellite observations

Duveiller¹,

Forzieri²,

Robertson³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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15Land use and land cover change (LULCC) alter the biophysical properties of the Earth's surface. The associated changes in vegetation cover can perturb the local surface energy balance, which in turn can affect the local climate. The sign and magnitude of this change in climate depends on the specific vegetation transition, its timing and location, as well as on the background climate. Land surface models (LSMs) can be used to simulate such land-climate interactions and study their impact in past and future climates, but their capacity to model biophysical effects accurately across the globe remain unclear 20 due to the complexity of the phenomena. Here we present a framework to evaluate the performance of such models with respect to a dedicated dataset derived from satellite remote sensing observations. Idealized simulations from four LSMs (JULES, ORCHIDEE, JSBACH and CLM) are combined with satellite observations to analyse the changes in radiative and turbulent fluxes caused by 15 specific vegetation cover transitions across geographic, seasonal and climatic gradients. The seasonal variation in net radiation associated with land cover change is the process that models capture best, whereas LSMs 25 perform poorly when simulating spatial and climatic gradients of variation in latent, sensible and ground heat fluxes induced by land cover transitions. We expect that this analysis will help identify model limitations and prioritize efforts in model development as well as to inform where consensus between model and observations is already met, ultimately helping to improve the robustness and consistency of model simulations to better inform land-based mitigation and adaptation policies.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Biophysics and vegetation cover change: a process-based evaluation framework for confronting land surface models with satellite observations

Duveiller¹,

Forzieri²,

Robertson³

et al. 2018

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This ET increase is due to transitions from croplands to forests that occurred during this period (Figure S1). These transitions have been reported to change local ET and hence affect the overall energy and water exchanges (Bright et al, ; Findell et al, ; Teuling et al, ). Afforestation in these regions was observed to reduce surface temperature due to the enhanced evaporative cooling effects (Li et al, ; Wickham et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Representation of Deforestation Effects on Evapotranspiration in the E3SM Land Model

Cai

Riley

Zhu

et al. 2019

J Adv Model Earth Syst

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Evapotranspiration (ET) plays an important role in land‐atmosphere coupling of energy, water, and carbon cycles. Following deforestation, ET is typically observed to decrease substantially as a consequence of decreases in leaf area and roots and increases in runoff. Changes in ET (latent heat flux) revise the surface energy and water budgets, which further affects large‐scale atmospheric dynamics and feeds back positively or negatively to long‐term forest sustainability. In this study, we used observations from a recent synthesis of 29 pairs of adjacent intact and deforested FLUXNET sites to improve model parameterization of stomatal characteristics, photosynthesis, and soil water dynamics in version 1 of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Land Model (ELMv1). We found that default ELMv1 predicts an increase in ET after deforestation, likely leading to incorrect estimates of the effects of deforestation on land‐atmosphere coupling. The calibrated model accurately represented the FLUXNET observed deforestation effects on ET. Importantly, the search for global optimal parameters converged at values consistent with recent observational syntheses, confirming the reliability of the calibrated physical parameters. Applying this improved model parameterization to the globe scale reduced the bias of annual ET simulation by up to ~600 mm/year. Analysis on the roles of parameters suggested that future model development to improve ET simulation should focus on stomatal resistance and soil water‐related parameterizations. Finally, our predicted differences in seasonal ET changes from deforestation are large enough to substantially affect land‐atmosphere coupling and should be considered in such studies.

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“…Based on physical principles of the surface radiation budget, it is expected that boreal forests cause a net surface warming due to decreased albedo, as albedo is the dominant biophysical process regulating local climate in high-latitude regions (e.g., boreal forests, and tundra; Bonan, 2008;Davin & de Noblet-Ducoudre, 2010;Mahmood et al, 2014). However, global and regional observations are not necessarily consistent with these predictions spatially (Alkama & Cescatti, 2016;Bright et al, 2017;Li et al, 2015;Schultz et al, 2017), probably because wildfire contributes to a substantial proportion of forest loss and confounds climate feedbacks. Forest loss due to wildfire differs from human-caused forest loss in several aspects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increases in Land Surface Temperature in Response to Fire in Siberian Boreal Forests and Their Attribution to Biophysical Processes

Liu

Ballantyne

Cooper

2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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Wildfire is the most prevalent natural disturbance in boreal forests and impacts climate through biogeochemical (e.g., greenhouse gas emission from biomass burning) and biophysical (e.g., albedo [α], evapotranspiration [ET], and roughness) processes. We used satellite observations to investigate the immediate (i.e., 1 year after fire) biophysical effects of fire in Siberian boreal forests. We found that boreal forest fires have a net annual warming effect (0.0728 to 0.325 K) due to strong summer warming and weak winter cooling. Fires also increased the diurnal temperature range and seasonal amplitude. These effects are strongest in summer and significantly higher in evergreen than in deciduous coniferous forests. Decreases in ET contributed to warming effects in summer, and increases in α contributed to cooling in winter. Our results suggest that the increase in observed land surface temperature immediately following fires in boreal ecosystems is most likely due to reduced ET leading to a strong positive feedback on the surface radiative budget.

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Local temperature response to land cover and management change driven by non-radiative processes

Cited by 290 publications

References 51 publications

Biophysics and vegetation cover change: a process-based evaluation framework for confronting land surface models with satellite observations

Biophysics and vegetation cover change: a process-based evaluation framework for confronting land surface models with satellite observations

Improving Representation of Deforestation Effects on Evapotranspiration in the E3SM Land Model

Increases in Land Surface Temperature in Response to Fire in Siberian Boreal Forests and Their Attribution to Biophysical Processes

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