Rapid changes of glacial climate simulated in a coupled climate model

Abrupt changes in climate, termed Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, have punctuated the last glacial period (approximately 100-10 kyr ago) but not the Holocene (the past 10 kyr). Here we use an intermediate-complexity climate model to investigate the stability of glacial climate, and we find that only one mode of Atlantic Ocean circulation is stable: a cold mode with deep water formation in the Atlantic Ocean south of Iceland. However, a 'warm' circulation mode similar to the present-day Atlantic Ocean is only marginally unstable, and temporary transitions to this warm mode can easily be triggered. This leads to abrupt warm events in the model which share many characteristics of the observed Dansgaard-Oeschger events. For a large freshwater input (such as a large release of icebergs), the model's deep water formation is temporarily switched off, causing no strong cooling in Greenland but warming in Antarctica, as is observed for Heinrich events. Our stability analysis provides an explanation why glacial climate is much more variable than Holocene climate.     

Reducing the climate shift in a new coupled model

Climate drift refers to spurious long-term changes that may be inherent in coupled models when external forcing factors are fixed. Understanding the sources of this drift and tuning the drift are crucial for obtaining reasonable simulations from coupled models. To prepare for the upcoming Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, a new coupled model has been constructed based on the Community Earth System Model and the Grid-point Atmospheric Model of IAP LASG version 2. However, the surface temperature predicted by the new model is too underestimated, and this underestimation is caused by a type of climate drift, i.e., ‘‘initial shock.’’ This study analyzes the source of the cold surface temperature from the perspective of energy balance and attempts to reduce the surface temperature drift by tuning the relative humidity threshold for low cloud.     

Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model

The continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide due to anthropogenic emissions is predicted to lead to significant changes in climate. About half of the current emissions are being absorbed by the ocean and by land ecosystems, but this absorption is sensitive to climate as well as to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, creating a feedback loop. General circulation models have generally excluded the feedback between climate and the biosphere, using static vegetation distributions and CO2 concentrations from simple carbon-cycle models that do not include climate change. Here we present results from a fully coupled, three-dimensional carbon-climate model, indicating that carbon-cycle feedbacks could significantly accelerate climate change over the twenty-first century. We find that under a 'business as usual' scenario, the terrestrial biosphere acts as an overall carbon sink until about 2050, but turns into a source thereafter. By 2100, the ocean uptake rate of 5 Gt C yr(-1) is balanced by the terrestrial carbon source, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations are 250 p.p.m.v. higher in our fully coupled simulation than in uncoupled carbon models, resulting in a global-mean warming of 5.5 K, as compared to 4 K without the carbon-cycle feedback.     

Neoproterozoic 'snowball Earth' simulations with a coupled climate/ice-sheet model

Ice sheets may have reached the Equator in the late Proterozoic era (600-800 Myr ago), according to geological and palaeomagnetic studies, possibly resulting in a 'snowball Earth'. But this period was a critical time in the evolution of multicellular animals, posing the question of how early life survived under such environmental stress. Here we present computer simulations of this unusual climate stage with a coupled climate/ice-sheet model. To simulate a snowball Earth, we use only a reduction in the solar constant compared to present-day conditions and we keep atmospheric CO2 concentrations near present levels. We find rapid transitions into and out of full glaciation that are consistent with the geological evidence. When we combine these results with a general circulation model, some of the simulations result in an equatorial belt of open water that may have provided a refugium for multicellular animals.     

Possible solar forcing of climate variability in the past 4000 years inferred from a proxy record at the southern margin of Tarim Basin

A ca. 4000a decadal-resolution climate proxy record of the mean grain-size from a lake (or mash) sediment at the southern margin of the Tarim Basin, correlates visually with the atmospheric 14C record from tree ring (residual △^14C, solar proxy) and the GISP2 ice core δ^18O record (temperature proxy). In general, △^14C maxima (solar minima) are coincident with cold (wet) periods in the study area and cold periods in the Greenland ice core. Power spectrum analysis revealed statistically significant periodicities of 196a, 121a, 97a, 62a, 45a and 33--30a, which are similar to those principal solar-oscillation periods as inferred from the atmospheric radiocarbon and other proxy records. Possible solar forcing is addressed to be the main driving forcing of climate change in the southern margin of Tarim Basin.     

One-to-one coupling of glacial climate variability in Greenland and Antarctica

Precise knowledge of the phase relationship between climate changes in the two hemispheres is a key for understanding the Earth's climate dynamics. For the last glacial period, ice core studies have revealed strong coupling of the largest millennial-scale warm events in Antarctica with the longest Dansgaard-Oeschger events in Greenland through the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. It has been unclear, however, whether the shorter Dansgaard-Oeschger events have counterparts in the shorter and less prominent Antarctic temperature variations, and whether these events are linked by the same mechanism. Here we present a glacial climate record derived from an ice core from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, which represents South Atlantic climate at a resolution comparable with the Greenland ice core records. After methane synchronization with an ice core from North Greenland, the oxygen isotope record from the Dronning Maud Land ice core shows a one-to-one coupling between all Antarctic warm events and Greenland Dansgaard-Oeschger events by the bipolar seesaw6. The amplitude of the Antarctic warm events is found to be linearly dependent on the duration of the concurrent stadial in the North, suggesting that they all result from a similar reduction in the meridional overturning circulation.     

North American ice-sheet dynamics and the onset of 100,000-year glacial cycles

The onset of major glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere about 2.7 million years ago was most probably induced by climate cooling during the late Pliocene epoch. These glaciations, during which the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets successively expanded and retreated, are superimposed on this long-term climate trend, and have been linked to variations in the Earth's orbital parameters. One intriguing problem associated with orbitally driven glacial cycles is the transition from 41,000-year to 100,000-year climatic cycles that occurred without an apparent change in insolation forcing. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the transition, both including and excluding ice-sheet dynamics. Difficulties in finding a conclusive answer to this palaeoclimatic problem are related to the lack of sufficiently long records of ice-sheet volume or sea level. Here we use a comprehensive ice-sheet model and a simple ocean-temperature model to extract three-million-year mutually consistent records of surface air temperature, ice volume and sea level from marine benthic oxygen isotopes. Although these records and their relative phasings are subject to considerable uncertainty owing to limited availability of palaeoclimate constraints, the results suggest that the gradual emergence of the 100,000-year cycles can be attributed to the increased ability of the merged North American ice sheets to survive insolation maxima and reach continental-scale size. The oversized, wet-based ice sheet probably responded to the subsequent insolation maximum by rapid thinning through increased basal-sliding, thereby initiating a glacial termination. Based on our assessment of the temporal changes in air temperature and ice volume during individual glacials, we demonstrate the importance of ice dynamics and ice-climate interactions in establishing the 100,000-year glacial cycles, with enhanced North American ice-sheet growth and the subsequent merging of the ice sheets being key elements.     

Prediction of decadal variability of sea surface temperature by a coupled global climate model FGOALS_gl developed in LASG/IAP

A decadal climate prediction was performed by a coupled global climate model FGOALS_gl developed by the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics(LASG) within the Institute of Atmospheric Physics(IAP),Chinese Academy of Sciences.First,an Incremental Analysis Updates(IAU) scheme was applied to assimilate surface and subsurface ocean temperature and salinity fields derived from oceanic objective analysis data,for the initialization of the ocean component of the model.Starting from the initialized states,hindcast integrations were performed with the specified historical solar cycle variations,concentrations of greenhouse gasses and sulfate aerosol,following the standard 20C3M scenario used in phase three of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project(CMIP3).Based on the hindcast integrations,we performed forecast integrations under the radiative forcing of the A1B scenario in the CMIP3.Compared with the 20C3M run,the hindcast integrations have a much higher ability to simulate the decadal variability of SST(Sea Surface Temperature) in the tropical central-eastern Pacific and mid-latitude northeastern Pacific.This suggests that the ocean initialization is able to enhance the model skill in the regions with large decadal variability.The forecast integrations suggest that the SST in the tropical central-eastern Pacific has reached its trough phase,and will gradually increase in the following 10-15 years.Meanwhile,the global mean surface temperature predicted by the forecast integrations increases slower than that projected by the A1B scenario run over 2000-2010,but faster than the latter after that.     

Influence of mean climate change on climate variability from a 155-year tropical Pacific coral record

Today, the El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) system is the primary driver of interannual variability in global climate, but its long-term behaviour is poorly understood. Instrumental observations reveal a shift in 1976 towards warmer and wetter conditions in the tropical Pacific, with widespread climatic and ecological consequences. This shift, unique over the past century, has prompted debate over the influence of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases on ENSO variability. Here we present a 155-year ENSO reconstruction from a central tropical Pacific coral that provides new evidence for long-term changes in the regional mean climate and its variability. A gradual transition in the early twentieth century and the abrupt change in 1976, both towards warmer and wetter conditions, co-occur with changes in variability. In the mid-late nineteenth century, cooler and drier background conditions coincided with prominent decadal variability; in the early twentieth century, shorter-period (approximately 2.9 years) variability intensified. After 1920, variability weakens and becomes focused at interannual timescales; with the shift in 1976, variability with a period of about 4 years becomes prominent. Our results suggest that variability in the tropical Pacific is linked to the region's mean climate, and that changes in both have occurred during periods of natural as well as anthropogenic climate forcing.     

An abrupt climate event in a coupled ocean-atmosphere simulation without external forcing

Temperature reconstructions from the North Atlantic region indicate frequent abrupt and severe climate fluctuations during the last glacial and Holocene periods. The driving forces for these events are unclear and coupled atmosphere-ocean models of global circulation have only simulated such events by inserting large amounts of fresh water into the northern North Atlantic Ocean. Here we report a drastic cooling event in a 15,000-yr simulation of global circulation with present-day climate conditions without the use of such external forcing. In our simulation, the annual average surface temperature near southern Greenland spontaneously fell 6-10 standard deviations below its mean value for a period of 30-40 yr. The event was triggered by a persistent northwesterly wind that transported large amounts of buoyant cold and fresh water into the northern North Atlantic Ocean. Oceanic convection shut down in response to this flow, concentrating the entire cooling of the northern North Atlantic by the colder atmosphere in the uppermost ocean layer. Given the similarity between our simulation and observed records of rapid cooling events, our results indicate that internal atmospheric variability alone could have generated the extreme climate disruptions in this region.     

Prediction of solar cycle based on the invariant

A new method of predicting solar activities has been introduced in this paper. The method can predict both the occurrence time and the maximum number of sunspot at the same time. By studying the variation of sunspot, we find that the combination of the several variables was nearly invariable during the entire solar cydes, as called invariant. And just only by determining the start time of a cycle, we can predict the occurrence time of cycle‘s peak value accurately. Furthermore, according to observational data of the sunspot cycles, it showed that the sunspot maximum number has correlation not only with the prophase variety of the number in the cycle but also with the anaphase of the previous period. So we can introduce an equivalent regression coefficient, which can dynamically self-adapt to different cycle lengths, and effectively solve the inconsistency between the accuracy and the lead-time of the forecast. It can guarantee the satisfied accuracy and effectively increases the lead-time of the forecast. This method can predict the maximum sunspot number for solar cycle at the approximate half rise of the period. This method predicts that the occurrence time of the maximum sunspot number for cycle 24 will be in January 2011.     

Constraints on future changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle

What can we say about changes in the hydrologic cycle on 50-year timescales when we cannot predict rainfall next week? Eventually, perhaps, a great deal: the overall climate response to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases may prove much simpler and more predictable than the chaos of short-term weather. Quantifying the diversity of possible responses is essential for any objective, probability-based climate forecast, and this task will require a new generation of climate modelling experiments, systematically exploring the range of model behaviour that is consistent with observations. It will be substantially harder to quantify the range of possible changes in the hydrologic cycle than in global-mean temperature, both because the observations are less complete and because the physical constraints are weaker.     

冰期非对称气候变化模式与生物多样性的形成机制?

生物多样性的形成与维持机制是生态学中最具挑战的核心问题之一.本文研究了大量冰期相关文献,发现冰期除周期性的气温变化之外,每个气温变化周期都经历了漫长的降温过程和相对快速的升温过程,由此提出了冰期"慢降—快升"非对称气温变化模式.在非对称气候变化模式下,地球上的生物地理分布随之发生"慢退—快进"的收缩和扩张,群落中的物种经历了长时间的隔离和相对快速的重组,呈现"聚少离多"的特征.同时,通过许多亲缘地理学的研究案例,发现物种的遗传变异多发生于缓慢降温阶段,在升温阶段时,这些已经存在的突变常沿不同路线扩张,并再次相遇,是遗传变异重组的过程.本文提出通过建立大尺度的天然群落格局平台,涵盖群落"慢退—快进"历史演变过程,结合亲缘地理学方法,从多尺度、多维度真实地还原群落形成和维持过程,预测气候变化和人类影响下生物群落的未来.     

Variations in solar luminosity and their effect on the Earth's climate

Variations in the Sun's total energy output (luminosity) are caused by changing dark (sunspot) and bright structures on the solar disk during the 11-year sunspot cycle. The variations measured from spacecraft since 1978 are too small to have contributed appreciably to accelerated global warming over the past 30 years. In this Review, we show that detailed analysis of these small output variations has greatly advanced our understanding of solar luminosity change, and this new understanding indicates that brightening of the Sun is unlikely to have had a significant influence on global warming since the seventeenth century. Additional climate forcing by changes in the Sun's output of ultraviolet light, and of magnetized plasmas, cannot be ruled out. The suggested mechanisms are, however, too complex to evaluate meaningfully at present.     

Possible developmental mechanisms underlying the origin of the crown lineages of arthropods

The extraordinarily preserved, diverse arthropod fauna from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shale, central Yunnan (southwest China), represents different evolutionary stages stepping from stem lineages towards crown arthropods (also called euarthropods), which makes this fauna extremely significant for discussion of the origin and early diversification of the arthropods. Anatomical analyses of the Maotianshan shale arthropods strongly indicate that     

中国六千年文明史的起源年代考证

新石器时代的世界各地氏族先民，在交通、信息十分不畅的情况下，在不同气候、不同自然条件地区的河流或山川谷地内，顽强生息、劳动，创造了既有人类共同特征，又有差异的物质与精神化。中国地域内的各氏族公社或部落，虽然互相有一定影响，但在发展中也呈现“多元”趋势，新石器早期化遗址在江南、江北均有发现，前仰韶化时代亦然。中国古代社会明因素在这个时期虽然已有，但较稀少。仰韶化时期的母系氏族化有了长足发展，呈现出黄河流域进步干长江流域的趋势。至龙山化时代，父系氏族古化、古城、古国等社会明迹象，仍是江北多于江南，因而古代社会明之源均可追溯至五六千年前的炎黄时代，可以毫无愧色地说：中国已有上-F6000年的社会明史。     

电感耦合等离子体光谱确定茶叶产地

利用ICP(电感耦合等离子体)光谱测定了不同茶叶中K,Ca,Na,Ba,Mg,Mn,Fe,Cu,Al,Ni等10种矿质元素的含量.通过分析茶叶中元素间的相关性,研究和建立了ICP光谱特征基,分析了茶叶中矿质元素的分布规律及其与茶叶产地之间的关系,并为茶叶的产地特征建立了矿质元素特征图谱.结果表明:以主成分1和主成分2作二维线性投影,对不同产地的茶叶有较好的聚类和鉴别作用.本文的研究对于原产地茶叶的保护、鉴定以及分析茶叶产地特征有直接和实际的意义.     

异常的第24太阳活动周——新千年的第一个完整的太阳活动周

介绍自2007年下半年到现在的非常低的太阳活动状况:无黑子活动天数为16太阳活动周以来最多,不排除24周的无黑子天数是现代黑子周内最多的可能;高纬度(35°)黑子的纬度为12周最低;从2003年11月～2008年9月,较高纬度(20°)每月没有黑子或只有1个黑子,共计持续了58个月,也为12周以来第一次观测到;太阳风速度、太阳风压、10cm电磁波辐射、太阳极区磁场、太阳总光度辐射等参量都为有观测资料以来的最低.对于这种极低太阳活动的现象,介绍了从当前的日震观测给予的解释、也从Gleissberg周期的长尺度、超长太阳活动周期尺度给予了解释.依据目前的观测,我们确定24黑子活动周于2008年11月开始.综合多种经典太阳活动预报方法给出的对24周太阳活动水平的预报,以及美国国家航空航天局和美国国家海洋大气局对24周的未来发展趋势的预报,认为24周太阳活动水平估计比23周将要弱30%左右.异常的24太阳活动周为太阳物理和日地关系物理研究带来机遇.