Modeling the impacts of reforestation on future climate in West Africa

Abiodun, Babatunde J.; Adeyewa, Zechariah Debo; Oguntunde, Philip G.; Salami, Ayobami T.; Ajayi, Vincent O.

doi:10.1007/s00704-012-0614-1

Cited by 78 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In conclusion, although HadGEM3-RA shows some weaknesses, such as a dry bias over much of the Sahel and Guinea Coast region, its performance in replicating the spatial distribution of rainfall appears in line with that documented in previous studies using either RegCM3 (Sylla et al 2009(Sylla et al , 2010bDiallo et al 2010;Abiodun et al 2012) or other state-of-the-science regional climate modelling systems (e.g. Diallo et al 2012Diallo et al , 2013aHernán-dez-Díaz et al 2013;Nikulin et al 2012;Gbobaniyi et al 2013;Sylla et al 2013b).…”

Section: Precipitation Climatologysupporting

confidence: 86%

Simulation of the West African monsoon onset using the HadGEM3-RA regional climate model

et al. 2014

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Section: Precipitation Climatologysupporting

confidence: 86%

Simulation of the West African monsoon onset using the HadGEM3-RA regional climate model

et al. 2014

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“…Recently, modeling and observational studies indicate that the climate and the ecosystems across the world are significantly affected by land surface changes (Koster et al 2004;Alo and Wang 2010;Pitman et al 2009;De Noblet-Ducoudré et al 2012), and in particular the West African climate is very sensitive to such changes in surface conditions (Abiodun et al 2012;Hagos et al 2014;Nicholson 2015;Boone et al 2016;Xue et al 2016;Sylla et al 2016). For instance, observation based studies by Nicholson (2015) pointed out that land surface characteristics and processes have a significant impact on rainfall variability in Sahel region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the framework of the West African Monsoon Modelling and Evaluation phase 2 project (WAMME2; Xue et al 2016), Wang et al (2016) argued that land cover degradation of a reasonable magnitude and spatial extent could trigger a drought comparable to the observed one. Nogherotto et al (2013) found that deforestation over the Congo basin strengthens the WAM, thereby causing increased (decreased) precipitation over the Sahel (Gulf of Guinea), while Abiodun et al (2012) showed that the deforestation weakens the inland transport of moisture needed for West African precipitation. Furthermore, Diasso and Abiodun (2017) showed that reforestation decreases the magnitude of the warming trend over Savanna and reverses the predicted precipitation trend, resulting to an increase in precipitation by 0.8-1.2 mm/day.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the African greenbelt position on West African summer climate: a regional climate modeling study

Bamba

Diallo

N’Datchoh

et al. 2018

Theor Appl Climatol

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This modeling study is conducted to examine the potential impact of the reforestation (greenbelt) location (either in Sahel or in Guinean region) on West African summer climate system. To this end, three simulations using the regional climate model RegCM4 driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis were performed at 50 km horizontal resolution over a West African domain for the period 2000-2011. The first experiment, namely the control (CTRL), uses the standard vegetation cover, while the two others incorporate throughout the model integration, a zonal reforestation band of evergreen broadleaf over different locations: (i) over a 13°N-17°N band latitudes in a Sahel-Sahara region (experiment hereafter referred to as GB15N) and (ii) between 8. 5°N-11.5°N in the Guinea Coast region (experiment hereafter referred to as GB10N). A comparison of the CTRL experiment with observation reveals a faithful reproduction of the mean boreal and summer seasonal precipitation pattern, though substantial dry/wet biases remain, especially in the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, the seasonal cycle over sub-regions matches satisfactory the observed pattern. The GB15N reforestation leads to a precipitation increase in the range of 2-4 mm/day over the forested areas, whereas in the GB10N reforestation, precipitation increase is weaker and not necessarily located in the forested areas. Temperature cooling is observed over the reforested area and may be explained by a decrease of ground heat flux related to a reduction of the surface albedo.

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“…The magnitude of temperature and precipitation biases in all the seasons was not horizontally homogeneous, but appeared to be more intense over areas with complex terrains (e.g., Guinean Highlands, Cameroon Mountains, and Jos plateau in Nigeria). Previous regional climate model simulations over West Africa reported similar biases [18,30,[60][61][62][63][64]. The model biases were associated with different factors, such as the absence of sufficient observing stations in the mountainous region, the influence of land/sea boundary conditions, physics configuration of the model, inherited biases from the driving global circulation models (GCMs), or the choice of cumulus convective parameterization [39,[65][66][67].…”

Section: Regcm4 Model Validationmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…The continental ITCZ is often referred to as the Inter-Tropical Discontinuity (ITD) [58], and its surface position was determined using the location of zero meridional wind. Similarly, AEJ and TEJ were located using the position of maximum westerly and zonal winds at 700 hPa and 200 hPa, respectively [18,58]. These three features of the West Africa monsoon contribute to the seasonal distribution and amount of rainfall over the region.…”

Section: Assessment Of Model Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Simulating the Impacts of Tree, C3, and C4 Plant Functional Types on the Future Climate of West Africa

Olusegun

Oguntunde

Gbobaniyi

2018

Climate

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This study investigates the future climatic impacts of different percentages of trees/shrubs, C4 and C3 plant functional types (PFTs) over the West Africa region. The ratio of co-existence among the different PFTs was done as a representation of agri-silviculture practices over the region. Nine sensitivity experiments of different percentages of trees/shrubs, and C4 and C3 PFTs were carried out with a regional climate model (RegCM4) driven by Global Climate Model (HADGEM2-ES) outputs. These experiments were carried out along the Guinea Savana zone of West Africa using both prescribed and dynamic vegetation options of the model. The model simulated the seasonal evolution of precipitation and temperature fields quite well, with correlations greater than 0.8, but exhibited cold and wet biases of about 1-2 • C and 1-4 mm/day, respectively. Widespread warming (1-3 • C) and drying (1-2 mm/day) is projected in the near future across most parts of West Africa all year round. The West African future climate change associated with the different percentages of trees/shrubs, and C4 and C3 PFTs varied with the vegetation state (prescribed or dynamic) and model domain sizes. The prescribed vegetation experiments induced cooling of about 0.5-2 • C in most areas along the designated agri-silviculture zone, except Liberia and Sierra Leone. Similarly, enhanced precipitation occurred over most parts of Ghana and coastal parts of Nigeria (0.5-3 mm/day). On the other hand, the dynamic vegetation option did not exhibit pronounced changes in temperature and precipitation, except with a larger domain size. This study suggests the implementation of agri-silviculture as a mitigation and adaptation land-use practice across West Africa if drought-tolerant crops and the deciduous trees are adopted.

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Modeling the impacts of reforestation on future climate in West Africa

Cited by 78 publications

References 29 publications

Simulation of the West African monsoon onset using the HadGEM3-RA regional climate model

Simulation of the West African monsoon onset using the HadGEM3-RA regional climate model

Effect of the African greenbelt position on West African summer climate: a regional climate modeling study

Simulating the Impacts of Tree, C3, and C4 Plant Functional Types on the Future Climate of West Africa

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