The climate influence of anthropogenic land-use changes on near-surface wind energy potential in China

There is considerable interest in the potential impact of climate change on wind energy in China. The climate change of near-surface wind energy potential in China under the background of global warming and its association with anthropogenic land-use changes are investigated by calculating the difference in surface wind speeds between the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and the observations since the reanalysis dataset contains the influence of large-scale climate changes due to greenhouse gases, it is less sensitive to regional surface processes associated with land types. The surface wind data in this study consist of long-term observations from 604 Chinese Roution Meteorological Stations and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data from 1960-1999. The results suggest that the observed mean wind speeds significantly weakened and the near-surface wind power trended downward due to urbanization and other land-use changes in the last 40 years. The mean wind energy weakened by -3.84 W·m^-2 per decade due to the influence of anthropogenic land-use change, which is close to the observed climate change （-4.51 W·m^-2/10 a）.     

土地利用/土地覆盖变化对区域气候影响的生物地球物理途径研究进展

本文从LUCC对气候影响的生物地球物理途径角度阐述其对气候系统的影响机制,并且结合多项研究结果归纳了诸如森林砍伐/造林活动、城市化、农业发展等人类LUCC活动在区域尺度的气候效应.气候模式是研究LUCC对区域气候及其变化最重要的试验工具之一,本文概括了气候模式经历了大气环流模式、区域气候模式、耦合的大气-陆面模式等一系列发展过程及其特点,提出利用遥感技术获取气候模式中的地面生物物理参数可以大幅提高模拟精度.最后,评论了目前LUCC气候效应研究中存在的问题,提出未来研究应着手降低区域气候模式模拟的不确定性,引入景观生态学理论与方法等可以更好地了解人类活动与气候变化的关系,进而制定适应气候变化的区域土地系统优化方案.     

西双版纳地区土地利用/覆盖变化对气温的影响

 应用标准化均方根误差和相关性,分析3种再分析资料在西双版纳地区的适用性.通过相减法(Observation minus Reanalysis,简称OMR)探讨西双版纳土地利用/覆盖变化对气温的影响,结果表明:NCEP-1、NECP-2和ERA-40数据及其距平值和实际观测气温的相关性均达到极显著水平(P＜0.01),均方根误差总体小于1,ERA-40的可信度最高.研究区4个气象站(勐海、景洪、勐仑和勐腊)月平均气温和再分析气温均呈上升趋势.剧烈的土地利用变化显著影响了平均气温变化,对景洪站、勐腊站、勐仑站和勐海站平均气温变化贡献值分别为0.08、0.07、0.01、0.05 ℃/10 a.景洪气象站气温变化受土地利用变化影响最明显.不同年代观测气温和再分析资料差值得到,20世纪80年代土地利用变化对气温影响最大,贡献值为 0.09 ℃.有林地、灌木林地、水田面积的减少,橡胶园和建设用地面积的增加影响了气温变化.     

Hotspots of the sensitivity of the land surface hydrological cycle to climate change

Due to the shortage of the global observational data of the terrestrial hydrological variables,the understanding of how surface hydrological processes respond to climate change is still limited.In this study,the Community Land Model(CLM4.0)with high resolution atmospheric forcing data is selected to simulate the global surface hydrological quantities during the period 1948–2006and to investigate the spatial features of these quantities in response to climate change at the regional scales.The sensitivities of evaporation and runoff with respect to the dominant climate change factors(e.g.temperature and precipitation)derived from the concept of climate elasticity are introduced.Results show that evaporation has a declining trend with a rate of 0.7 mm per decade,while runoff shows a weak increasing trend of 0.15 mm per decade over the global land surface.Analyses of the hotspots in the hydrological cycle indicate that the spatial distributions for evaporation and runoff are similar over many areas in central Asia,Australia,and southern South America,but differ largely in high latitudes.It is also found that,the evaporation hotspots in arid regions are mainly associated with the changes in precipitation.Our sensitive analysis suggests that the hydrological quantities show a rather complicated spatial dependency of response of the water cycle to the different climate factors(temperature and precipitation).     

中国土地利用/土地覆盖变化研究综述

20世纪90年代以来，随着资源、环境和人口问题的日益突出，土地利用／土地覆盖变化研究己成为国际上全球变化研究的前沿和热点课题。在这个大背景下，中国也相应地开展了大量的土地利用／土地覆盖变化研究。文章回顾了中国在这个全球性热点领域所进行的研究；着重综述了中国土地利用／上地覆盖变化研究中时空变化、动力机制以及环境效应等三方面所取得的进展，并阐述了未来中国土地利用／土地覆盖变化研究的发展趋势。     

Changes in precipitation and extreme precipitation in a warming environment in China

This study analyses the decadal changes in winter precipitation and extreme precipitation in a warming environment in China. The results show that, together with a trend of winter warming in China, winter precipitation and extreme precipitation in the region are also increasing. In addition, concurrent with the decadal warming shift that occurred in the mid-1980s, precipitation and extreme precipitation both increased significantly. Quantitative analysis shows that precipitation and extreme precipitation increased at rates of 9.7% and 22.6% per 1℃ of surface warming in China. This rate of precipitation increase is greater than the global mean, which indicates that precipitation in China is highly sensitive to climate warming and further highlights the importance of studying regional responses to climate warming. The fact that extreme precipitation is increasing at a higher rate than precipitation implies that winter precipitation in China will increasingly be of more extreme type in the context of global warming, which could partly explain why there have recently been a number of record-breaking extreme snowfall events in China.     

土地利用/覆盖变化-生态系统服务-人类福祉关系研究进展

系统厘清土地利用/覆盖变化、生态系统服务与人类福祉之间的复杂关系及研究进展与研究趋势,对于应对全球变化、生态环境破坏等问题十分重要．本文从土地利用/覆盖与生态系统服务、生态系统服务与人类福祉以及土地利用/覆盖变化-生态系统服务-人类福祉3个方面,总结了三者之间复杂关系的研究进展,并指出未来的研究方向．研究结果表明:1）生态系统服务的变化主要由土地利用类型、格局和强度的改变引起;2）土地利用/覆盖变化、生态系统服务与人类福祉的研究通常用来解决减贫、生态系统健康、生物多样性保护、可持续发展与自然资本方面的问题;3）在土地利用变化、生态系统服务与人类福祉的研究方面未来需要加强的研究主要包括多尺度关联、驱动力分析、不同人群特征及土地利用类型与生态系统服务偏好的关联,以及气候变化对生态系统服务与人类福祉的影响等．      

Changes in mean and extreme climates over China with a 2°C global warming

Based on a 153-year (1948-2100) transient simulation of East Asian climate performed by a high resolution regional climate model (RegCM3) under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A1B scenario, the potential future changes in mean and extreme climates over China in association with a global warming of 2℃ with respect to pre-industrial times are assessed in this study. Results show that annual temperature rises over the whole of China, with a greater magnitude of around 0.6℃ compared to the global mean increase, at the time of a 2℃ global warming. Large-scale surface warming gets stronger towards the high latitudes and on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, while it is similar in magnitude but somewhat different in spatial pattern between seasons. Annual precipitation increases by 5.2%, and seasonal precipitation increases by 4.2%-8.5% with respect to the 1986-2005 climatology. At the large scale, apart from in boreal winter when precipitation increases in northern China but decreases in southern China, annual and seasonal precipitation increases in western and southeastern China but decreases over the rest of the country. Nationwide extreme warm (cold) temperature events increase (decrease). With respect to the 1986-2005 climatology, the country-averaged annual extreme precipitation events R5d, SDII, R95T, and R10 increase by 5.1 mm, 0.28 mm d -1 , 6.6%, and 0.4 d respectively, and CDD decreases by 0.5 d. There is a large spatial variability in R10 and CDD changes.     

Impacts of external forcing on the 20th century global warming

The impacts of external forcing,including natural and anthropogenic,on the 20th century global warming were assessed with the use of the Grid Atmospheric Model of IAP/LASG Version 1.1.0,fol-lowing the standard coordinated experiment design of the Climate Variability and Predictability(CLIVAR) International Climate of the Twentieth Century Project(C20C) ,Phase II. The results indicate that external forcing plays an important role in the evolution of the land surface air temperature on in-terannual,decadal,and interdecadal time scales,and contributes greatly to the global warming in the following two periods:the early twentieth century between the 1910s and the 1940s and the late twen-tieth century after the 1970s. External forcing also has strong impact on the regional temperature change during the two warming periods except for parts of the Eurasia and the North America conti-nents. In the cooling period,however,the impact of internal variability is dominant.     

Effects of historical land cover changes on climate

In order to explore the influence of anthropogenic land use on the climate system during the last mil- lennium, a set of experiments is performed with an Earth system model of intermediate complexity—— the McGill Paleoclimate Model (MPM-2). The present paper mainly focuses on biogeophysical effects of historical land cover changes. A dynamic scenario of deforestation is described based on changes in cropland fraction (RF99). The model simulates a decrease in global mean annual temperature in the range of 0.09-0.16℃, especially 0.14-0.22℃ in Northern Hemisphere during the last 300 years. The responses of climate system to GHGs concentration changes are also calculated for comparisons. Now, afforestation is becoming an important choice for the enhancement of terrestrial carbon sequestration and adjustment of regional climate. The results indicate that biogeophysical effects of land cover changes cannot be neglected in the assessments of climate change.     

Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply

More than half of the solar energy absorbed by land surfaces is currently used to evaporate water. Climate change is expected to intensify the hydrological cycle and to alter evapotranspiration, with implications for ecosystem services and feedback to regional and global climate. Evapotranspiration changes may already be under way, but direct observational constraints are lacking at the global scale. Until such evidence is available, changes in the water cycle on land?a key diagnostic criterion of the effects of climate change and variability?remain uncertain. Here we provide a data-driven estimate of global land evapotranspiration from 1982 to 2008, compiled using a global monitoring network, meteorological and remote-sensing observations, and a machine-learning algorithm. In addition, we have assessed evapotranspiration variations over the same time period using an ensemble of process-based land-surface models. Our results suggest that global annual evapotranspiration increased on average by 7.1?±?1.0?millimetres per year per decade from 1982 to 1997. After that, coincident with the last major El Ni?o event in 1998, the global evapotranspiration increase seems to have ceased until 2008. This change was driven primarily by moisture limitation in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly Africa and Australia. In these regions, microwave satellite observations indicate that soil moisture decreased from 1998 to 2008. Hence, increasing soil-moisture limitations on evapotranspiration largely explain the recent decline of the global land-evapotranspiration trend. Whether the changing behaviour of evapotranspiration is representative of natural climate variability or reflects a more permanent reorganization of the land water cycle is a key question for earth system science.     

Impact of land surface degradation in northern China and southern Mongolia on regional climate

Clear evidence provided by the singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis to the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation data identifies that there exists a sensitive region of vegetation-climate interaction located in the transitional zone over northern China and its surrounding areas, where the vegetation cover change has the most significant influence on summer precipitation over China.““ Comparison of reanalysis data with station data provides a good method to assess the impacts of land use change on surface temperature, and the most obvious contribution of land use change may be to lead to notable warming over northern China in the interdecadal time scale. Based on the new statistical results, a high-resolution regional integrated environmental model system (RIEMS) is employed to investigate the effects of land surface degradation over the transitional zone and its surrounding areas (northern China and southern Mongolia) on the regional climate. Land degradation results in the decreases in precipitation over northern and southern China, and the increase in between, and increased and decreased temperature over vegetation change areas and the adjacent area to the south, respectively. Not only would it change the surface climate, but also bring the significant influence on the atmospheric circulation. Both the surface climate and circulation changes generally agree to the observed interdecadal anomalies over the last five decades. These integrated statistical and simulated results imply that land surface degradation over the transitional zone in northern China and its surrounding areas could be one of the main causes responsible for the climate anomalies over China, especially the drought over northern China.     

土地利用/覆被的剧烈变化对深圳市气温的影响

基于Landsat遥感影像解译得到1986年和2011年深圳市土地利用/覆被数据,采用中尺度气候模式WRF/UCM,在较高分辨率的地形资料和城市冠层参数支持下,将两个时期的土地利用/覆被作为模式强迫参量,分别进行两组数值模拟试验。将模拟结果与自动气象站点观测数据进行对比和验证,发现WRF模式能够较准确地反映深圳市月平均气温西高东低的空间分布特征。1986—2011年,深圳市在快速城市化进程中发生大规模的土地利用/覆被变化,引起近地表气温整体上呈现增高趋势。其中,7月增温幅度(0.91℃)普遍大于1月(0.42℃),各种自然植被覆盖型用地转变成城镇建设用地的升温幅度大多为0.70~1.57℃。主要原因是城镇建设用地扩张导致地表反照率减小,净辐射和感热通量增加,潜热交换变弱。     

New evidence for effects of land cover in China on summer climate

The effects of land cover in different regions of China on summer climate are studied by lagged correlation analysis using NOAA/AVHRR normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data for the period of 1981-1994 and temperature,precipitation data of 160 meteorological stations in China,The results show that the correlation coeffi-cients between NDVI in previous season and summer precipitation are positive in most regions of China,and the lagged correlations show a significant difference between regions.The stronger correlations between NDVI in previous winter and precipitation in summer occur in Central Chian and the Tibetan Plateau,and the correlations between spring NDVI and summer precipitation in the eastern arid/semiarid region and the Tibetan Plateau are more significant .Vegetation changes have more sensitive feedback effects on climate in the three regions (eastern arid /semi-arid region,Central China and Tibetan Plateau),The lagged correlations between NDVI and precipitation suggest that,on interannual time scales,land cover affects summer precipitation to a certain extent,The correlations between NDVI in previous season and summer temperature show more comlex ,and the lagged responses of temperature to vegetation are weaker compared with precipitation .and they are possibly related to the global warming which partly cover up the correlations.     

土地利用/土地覆盖变化研究

土地利用/土地覆盖变化(LUCC)研究已成为国际上全球变化研究的前沿和热点问题,本文回顾了这个全球性热点领域所进行的研究,着重综述了土地利用/土地覆盖变化研究中动态信息的获取、动力机制、区域问题以及环境效应几方面所取得的进展;简要分析了目前研究中存在的问题,并阐述了未来土地利用/土地覆盖变化研究的发展趋势。     

陕西渭北旱塬近43年气候暖干化研究

利用 1 95 5 - 1 997年陕西渭北地区 5个县、市的气温和降水资料 ,对近 43年来陕西渭北地区气候变化特征进行了分析 .结果表明 ,近 43年来 ,陕西渭北地区温度、降水的变化呈明显多重周期波动 ,年平均气温上升 ,降水量减少 ,变旱趋势明显 ,气候呈暖干化     

Uncertainty in crossing time of 2 °C warming threshold over China

The 2 °C warming target has been used widely in global and regional climate change research. Previous studies have shown large uncertainties in the time when surface air temperature (SAT) change over China will reach 2 °C relative to the pre-industrial era. To understand the uncertainties, we analyzed the projected SAT in the twenty-first century using 40 state-of-the-art climate models under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5. The 2 °C threshold-crossing time (TCT) of SAT averaged across China was around 2033 and 2029 for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. Considering a ±1σ range of intermodel SAT change, the upper and lower bounds of the 2 °C TCT could differ by about 25 years or even more. Uncertainty in the projected SAT and the warming rate around the TCT are the two main factors responsible for the TCT uncertainty. The former is determined by the climate sensitivity represented by the global mean surface temperature response. About 45 % of the intermodel variance of the projected 2 °C TCT for averaged SAT over China can be explained by climate sensitivity across the models, which is contributed mainly by central and southern China. In a climate more sensitive to CO₂ forcing, stronger greenhouse effect, less stratus cloud over the East Asian monsoon region, and less snow cover on the Tibetan Plateau result in increased downward longwave radiation, increased shortwave radiation, and decreased shortwave radiation reflected by the surface, respectively, all of which may advance the TCT.     

Climate sensitivity constrained by temperature reconstructions over the past seven centuries

The magnitude and impact of future global warming depends on the sensitivity of the climate system to changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. The commonly accepted range for the equilibrium global mean temperature change in response to a doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, termed climate sensitivity, is 1.5-4.5 K (ref. 2). A number of observational studies, however, find a substantial probability of significantly higher sensitivities, yielding upper limits on climate sensitivity of 7.7 K to above 9 K (refs 3-8). Here we demonstrate that such observational estimates of climate sensitivity can be tightened if reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere temperature over the past several centuries are considered. We use large-ensemble energy balance modelling and simulate the temperature response to past solar, volcanic and greenhouse gas forcing to determine which climate sensitivities yield simulations that are in agreement with proxy reconstructions. After accounting for the uncertainty in reconstructions and estimates of past external forcing, we find an independent estimate of climate sensitivity that is very similar to those from instrumental data. If the latter are combined with the result from all proxy reconstructions, then the 5-95 per cent range shrinks to 1.5-6.2 K, thus substantially reducing the probability of very high climate sensitivity.     

Projected increase in continental runoff due to plant responses to increasing carbon dioxide

In addition to influencing climatic conditions directly through radiative forcing, increasing carbon dioxide concentration influences the climate system through its effects on plant physiology. Plant stomata generally open less widely under increased carbon dioxide concentration, which reduces transpiration and thus leaves more water at the land surface. This driver of change in the climate system, which we term 'physiological forcing', has been detected in observational records of increasing average continental runoff over the twentieth century. Here we use an ensemble of experiments with a global climate model that includes a vegetation component to assess the contribution of physiological forcing to future changes in continental runoff, in the context of uncertainties in future precipitation. We find that the physiological effect of doubled carbon dioxide concentrations on plant transpiration increases simulated global mean runoff by 6 per cent relative to pre-industrial levels; an increase that is comparable to that simulated in response to radiatively forced climate change (11 +/- 6 per cent). Assessments of the effect of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations on the hydrological cycle that only consider radiative forcing will therefore tend to underestimate future increases in runoff and overestimate decreases. This suggests that freshwater resources may be less limited than previously assumed under scenarios of future global warming, although there is still an increased risk of drought. Moreover, our results highlight that the practice of assessing the climate-forcing potential of all greenhouse gases in terms of their radiative forcing potential relative to carbon dioxide does not accurately reflect the relative effects of different greenhouse gases on freshwater resources.     

Indirect radiative forcing of climate change through ozone effects on the land-carbon sink

The evolution of the Earth's climate over the twenty-first century depends on the rate at which anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are removed from the atmosphere by the ocean and land carbon cycles. Coupled climate-carbon cycle models suggest that global warming will act to limit the land-carbon sink, but these first generation models neglected the impacts of changing atmospheric chemistry. Emissions associated with fossil fuel and biomass burning have acted to approximately double the global mean tropospheric ozone concentration, and further increases are expected over the twenty-first century. Tropospheric ozone is known to damage plants, reducing plant primary productivity and crop yields, yet increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are thought to stimulate plant primary productivity. Increased carbon dioxide and ozone levels can both lead to stomatal closure, which reduces the uptake of either gas, and in turn limits the damaging effect of ozone and the carbon dioxide fertilization of photosynthesis. Here we estimate the impact of projected changes in ozone levels on the land-carbon sink, using a global land carbon cycle model modified to include the effect of ozone deposition on photosynthesis and to account for interactions between ozone and carbon dioxide through stomatal closure. For a range of sensitivity parameters based on manipulative field experiments, we find a significant suppression of the global land-carbon sink as increases in ozone concentrations affect plant productivity. In consequence, more carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere. We suggest that the resulting indirect radiative forcing by ozone effects on plants could contribute more to global warming than the direct radiative forcing due to tropospheric ozone increases.