Articles | Volume 6, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-245-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-245-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
12 May 2015
Research article |
| 12 May 2015
Do Himalayan treelines respond to recent climate change? An evaluation of sensitivity indicators
U. Schickhoff
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
M. Bobrowski
CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
J. Böhner
CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
B. Bürzle
CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
R. P. Chaudhary
Research Centre for Applied Science and Technology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
L. Gerlitz
CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
H. Heyken
CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
J. Lange
Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
M. Müller
Institute of Physical Geography and Soil Science, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
T. Scholten
Institute of Physical Geography and Soil Science, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
N. Schwab
CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
R. Wedegärtner
Institute of Physical Geography and Soil Science, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Christina Asmus, Peter Hoffmann, Joni-Pekka Pietikäinen, Jürgen Böhner, and Diana Rechid
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7311–7337, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7311-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7311-2023, 2023
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Irrigation modifies the land surface and soil conditions. The effects can be quantified using numerical climate models. Our study introduces a new irrigation parameterization, which simulates the effects of irrigation on land, atmosphere, and vegetation. We applied the parameterization and evaluated the results in terms of their physical consistency. We found an improvement in the model results in the 2 m temperature representation in comparison with observational data for our study.
Wanjun Zhang, Thomas Scholten, Steffen Seitz, Qianmei Zhang, Guowei Chu, Linhua Wang, and Juxiu Liu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2789, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2789, 2023
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Rainfall input generally control soil water and plant growth. We focus on rainfall redistribution in succession sequence forests over 22 years. Some changes of rainwater volume and chemistry in the throughfall and stemflow and drivers were investigated. Results show that shifted open rainfall over time and forest factors induced remarkable variability of throughfall and stemflow, which potentially made forecasting future changes of water resources in the forest ecosystems more difficult.
Peter Hoffmann, Vanessa Reinhart, Diana Rechid, Nathalie de Noblet-Ducoudré, Edouard L. Davin, Christina Asmus, Benjamin Bechtel, Jürgen Böhner, Eleni Katragkou, and Sebastiaan Luyssaert
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3819–3852, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3819-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3819-2023, 2023
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This paper introduces the new high-resolution land use and land cover change dataset LUCAS LUC for Europe (version 1.1), tailored for use in regional climate models. Historical and projected future land use change information from the Land-Use Harmonization 2 (LUH2) dataset is translated into annual plant functional type changes from 1950 to 2015 and 2016 to 2100, respectively, by employing a newly developed land use translator.
Nicolás Riveras-Muñoz, Steffen Seitz, Kristina Witzgall, Victoria Rodríguez, Peter Kühn, Carsten W. Mueller, Rómulo Oses, Oscar Seguel, Dirk Wagner, and Thomas Scholten
SOIL, 8, 717–731, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-717-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-717-2022, 2022
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Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) stabilize the soil surface mainly in arid regions but are also present in Mediterranean and humid climates. We studied this stabilizing effect through wet and dry sieving along a large climatic gradient in Chile and found that the stabilization of soil aggregates persists in all climates, but their role is masked and reserved for a limited number of size fractions under humid conditions by higher vegetation and organic matter contents in the topsoil.
Corinna Gall, Martin Nebel, Dietmar Quandt, Thomas Scholten, and Steffen Seitz
Biogeosciences, 19, 3225–3245, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3225-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3225-2022, 2022
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Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental challenges of our time, which also applies to forests when forest soil is disturbed. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) can play a key role as erosion control. In this study, we combined soil erosion measurements with vegetation surveys in disturbed forest areas. We found that soil erosion was reduced primarily by pioneer bryophyte-dominated biocrusts and that bryophytes contributed more to soil erosion mitigation than vascular plants.
Vanessa Reinhart, Peter Hoffmann, Diana Rechid, Jürgen Böhner, and Benjamin Bechtel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1735–1794, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1735-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1735-2022, 2022
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The LANDMATE plant functional type (PFT) land cover dataset for Europe 2015 (Version 1.0) is a gridded, high-resolution dataset for use in regional climate models. LANDMATE PFT is prepared using the expertise of regional climate modellers all over Europe and is easily adjustable to fit into different climate model families. We provide comprehensive spatial quality information for LANDMATE PFT, which can be used to reduce uncertainty in regional climate model simulations.
Peter Hoffmann, Vanessa Reinhart, Diana Rechid, Nathalie de Noblet-Ducoudré, Edouard L. Davin, Christina Asmus, Benjamin Bechtel, Jürgen Böhner, Eleni Katragkou, and Sebastiaan Luyssaert
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2021-252, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2021-252, 2021
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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This paper introduces the new high-resolution land-use land-cover change dataset LUCAS LUC historical and future land use and land cover change dataset (Version 1.0), tailored for use in regional climate models. Historical and projected future land use change information from the Land-Use Harmonization 2 (LUH2) dataset is translated into annual plant functional type changes from 1950 to 2015 and 2016 to 2100, respectively, by employing a newly developed land use translator.
Sascha Scherer, Benjamin Höpfer, Katleen Deckers, Elske Fischer, Markus Fuchs, Ellen Kandeler, Jutta Lechterbeck, Eva Lehndorff, Johanna Lomax, Sven Marhan, Elena Marinova, Julia Meister, Christian Poll, Humay Rahimova, Manfred Rösch, Kristen Wroth, Julia Zastrow, Thomas Knopf, Thomas Scholten, and Peter Kühn
SOIL, 7, 269–304, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-269-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-269-2021, 2021
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This paper aims to reconstruct Middle Bronze Age (MBA) land use practices in the northwestern Alpine foreland (SW Germany, Hegau). We used a multi-proxy approach including biogeochemical proxies from colluvial deposits in the surroundings of a MBA settlement, on-site archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data and off-site pollen data. From our data we infer land use practices such as plowing, cereal growth, forest farming and use of fire that marked the beginning of major colluvial deposition.
Jan Johannes Miera, Jessica Henkner, Karsten Schmidt, Markus Fuchs, Thomas Scholten, Peter Kühn, and Thomas Knopf
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 68, 75–93, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-68-75-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-68-75-2019, 2019
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This study investigates Neolithic settlement dynamics by combining archaeological source criticism and archaeopedological data from colluvial deposits. It is shown that the distribution of Neolithic sites in the Baar region is distorted by superimposition due to erosion. Furthermore, the preservation conditions for pottery are limited by weathering effects. By complementing archaeological data with phases of colluviation we are able to point out settlement dynamics throughout the Neolithic.
Lars A. Meier, Patryk Krauze, Isabel Prater, Fabian Horn, Carlos E. G. R. Schaefer, Thomas Scholten, Dirk Wagner, Carsten W. Mueller, and Peter Kühn
Biogeosciences, 16, 2481–2499, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2481-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2481-2019, 2019
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James Ross Island offers the opportunity to study the undisturbed interplay of microbial activity and pedogenesis. Soils from two sites representing coastal and inland conditions were chosen and analyzed with a wide range of techniques to describe soil properties. We are able to show that coastal conditions go along with more intense weathering and therefore favor soil formation and that microbial communities are initially more affected by weathering and structure than by chemical parameters.
Eva Steirou, Lars Gerlitz, Heiko Apel, Xun Sun, and Bruno Merz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1305–1322, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1305-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1305-2019, 2019
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We investigate whether flood probabilities in Europe vary for different large-scale atmospheric circulation conditions. Maximum seasonal river flows from 600 gauges in Europe and five synchronous atmospheric circulation indices are analyzed. We find that a high percentage of stations is influenced by at least one of the climate indices, especially during winter. These results can be useful for preparedness and damage planning by (re-)insurance companies.
Michael Bock, Olaf Conrad, Andreas Günther, Ernst Gehrt, Rainer Baritz, and Jürgen Böhner
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 1641–1652, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1641-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1641-2018, 2018
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We introduce the Soil and
Landscape Evolution Model (SaLEM) for the prediction of soil parent material evolution following a lithologically differentiated approach. The GIS tool is working within the software framework SAGA GIS. Weathering, erosion and transport functions are calibrated using extrinsic and intrinsic parameter data. First results indicate that our approach shows evidence for the spatiotemporal prediction of soil parental material properties.
Heiko Apel, Zharkinay Abdykerimova, Marina Agalhanova, Azamat Baimaganbetov, Nadejda Gavrilenko, Lars Gerlitz, Olga Kalashnikova, Katy Unger-Shayesteh, Sergiy Vorogushyn, and Abror Gafurov
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2225–2254, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2225-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2225-2018, 2018
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Central Asia crucially depends on water resources supplied by snow melt in the mountains during summer. To support water resources management we propose a generic tool for statistical forecasts of seasonal discharge based on multiple linear regressions. The predictors are observed precipitation and temperature, snow coverage, and discharge. The automatically derived models for 13 different catchments provided very skilful forecasts in April, and acceptable forecasts in January.
Steffen Seitz, Martin Nebel, Philipp Goebes, Kathrin Käppeler, Karsten Schmidt, Xuezheng Shi, Zhengshan Song, Carla L. Webber, Bettina Weber, and Thomas Scholten
Biogeosciences, 14, 5775–5788, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5775-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5775-2017, 2017
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This study investigated biological soil crusts (biocrusts, e.g. cyanobacteria and mosses) within an early-stage mesic subtropical forest in China, where they were particularly abundant. Biocrust covers significantly decreased soil erosion and were more effective in erosion reduction than stone cover. Hence, they play an important role in mitigating soil erosion under forest and are of particular interest for erosion control in forest plantations.
Ramchandra Karki, Shabeh ul Hasson, Lars Gerlitz, Udo Schickhoff, Thomas Scholten, and Jürgen Böhner
Earth Syst. Dynam., 8, 507–528, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-507-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-507-2017, 2017
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Dynamical downscaling of climate fields at very high resolutions (convection- and topography-resolving scales) over the complex Himalayan terrain of the Nepalese Himalayas shows promising results. It clearly demonstrates the potential of mesoscale models to accurately simulate present and future climate information at very high resolutions over remote, data-scarce mountainous regions for the development of adaptation strategies and impact assessments in the context of changing climate.
Shabeh Hasson, Jürgen Böhner, and Valerio Lucarini
Earth Syst. Dynam., 8, 337–355, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-337-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-337-2017, 2017
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A first comprehensive and systematic hydroclimatic trend analysis for the upper Indus Basin suggests warming and drying of spring and rising early melt-season discharge over 1995–2012 period. In contrast, cooling and falling or weakly rising discharge is found within summer monsoon period that coincides well with main glacier melt season. Such seasonally distinct changes, indicating dominance of snow but suppression of glacial melt regime, address hydroclimatic explanation of
Karakoram Anomaly.
Lars Gerlitz, Sergiy Vorogushyn, Heiko Apel, Abror Gafurov, Katy Unger-Shayesteh, and Bruno Merz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 4605–4623, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4605-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4605-2016, 2016
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Most statistically based seasonal precipitation forecast models utilize a small set of well-known climate indices as potential predictor variables. However, for many target regions, these indices do not lead to sufficient results and customized predictors are required for an accurate prediction.
This study presents a statistically based routine, which automatically identifies suitable predictors from globally gridded SST and climate variables by means of an extensive data mining procedure.
S. Seitz, P. Goebes, Z. Song, H. Bruelheide, W. Härdtle, P. Kühn, Y. Li, and T. Scholten
SOIL, 2, 49–61, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-49-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-49-2016, 2016
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Different tree species affect interrill erosion, but a higher tree species richness does not mitigate soil losses in young subtropical forest stands. Different tree morphologies and tree traits (e.g. crown cover or tree height) have to be considered when assessing erosion in forest ecosystems. If a leaf litter cover is not present, the remaining soil surface cover by stones and biological soil crusts is the most important driver for soil erosion control.
O. Conrad, B. Bechtel, M. Bock, H. Dietrich, E. Fischer, L. Gerlitz, J. Wehberg, V. Wichmann, and J. Böhner
Geosci. Model Dev., 8, 1991–2007, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1991-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1991-2015, 2015
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The System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) is a comprehensive and globally established open source geographic information system (GIS) for scientific analysis and modeling. The current version 2.1.4 offers more than 700 tools that represent the broad scopes of SAGA in numerous fields of geoscientific endeavor. In this paper, we inform about the system’s architecture and functionality and highlight the wide spectrum of scientific applications of SAGA in a review of published studies.
M. Klinge, J. Böhner, and S. Erasmi
Biogeosciences, 12, 2893–2905, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-2893-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-2893-2015, 2015
L. Gerlitz, O. Conrad, and J. Böhner
Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 61–81, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-61-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-61-2015, 2015
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In order to assess high-resolution precipitation fields for the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan Arc, a novel downscaling approach is presented which integrates traditional statistical downscaling and GIS-based terrain parameterization techniques. The approach enables a detailed analysis of the precipitation heterogeinity over the complex target area.
A.-K. Schatz, T. Scholten, and P. Kühn
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cpd-10-469-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cpd-10-469-2014, 2014
Revised manuscript not accepted
S. Hasson, V. Lucarini, S. Pascale, and J. Böhner
Earth Syst. Dynam., 5, 67–87, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-67-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-67-2014, 2014
Y. Wang, U. Herzschuh, L. S. Shumilovskikh, S. Mischke, H. J. B. Birks, J. Wischnewski, J. Böhner, F. Schlütz, F. Lehmkuhl, B. Diekmann, B. Wünnemann, and C. Zhang
Clim. Past, 10, 21–39, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-21-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-21-2014, 2014
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Earth system interactions with the biosphere: ecosystems
Opening Pandora's box: reducing global circulation model uncertainty in Australian simulations of the carbon cycle
Persistent La Niñas drive joint soybean harvest failures in North and South America
Spatiotemporal changes in the boreal forest in Siberia over the period 1985–2015 against the background of climate change
Downscaling of climate change scenarios for a high-resolution, site-specific assessment of drought stress risk for two viticultural regions with heterogeneous landscapes
Global climate change and the Baltic Sea ecosystem: direct and indirect effects on species, communities and ecosystem functioning
Widespread greening suggests increased dry-season plant water availability in the Rio Santa valley, Peruvian Andes
Spatiotemporal patterns and drivers of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) leaching into the European river network
Impacts of compound hot–dry extremes on US soybean yields
Vulnerability of European ecosystems to two compound dry and hot summers in 2018 and 2019
Modelling forest ruin due to climate hazards
Exploring how groundwater buffers the influence of heatwaves on vegetation function during multi-year droughts
Diverging land-use projections cause large variability in their impacts on ecosystems and related indicators for ecosystem services
Impacts of land use change and elevated CO2 on the interannual variations and seasonal cycles of gross primary productivity in China
Investigating the applicability of emergent constraints
Tidal impacts on primary production in the North Sea
Global vegetation variability and its response to elevated CO2, global warming, and climate variability – a study using the offline SSiB4/TRIFFID model and satellite data
Steering operational synergies in terrestrial observation networks: opportunity for advancing Earth system dynamics modelling
Contrasting terrestrial carbon cycle responses to the 1997/98 and 2015/16 extreme El Niño events
Low-frequency variability in North Sea and Baltic Sea identified through simulations with the 3-D coupled physical–biogeochemical model ECOSMO
Vegetation–climate feedbacks modulate rainfall patterns in Africa under future climate change
Climate change increases riverine carbon outgassing, while export to the ocean remains uncertain
Spatial and temporal variations in plant water-use efficiency inferred from tree-ring, eddy covariance and atmospheric observations
Modelling short-term variability in carbon and water exchange in a temperate Scots pine forest
Establishment and maintenance of regulating ecosystem services in a dryland area of central Asia, illustrated using the Kökyar Protection Forest, Aksu, NW China, as an example
The impact of land cover generated by a dynamic vegetation model on climate over east Asia in present and possible future climate
Bimodality of woody cover and biomass across the precipitation gradient in West Africa
Critical impacts of global warming on land ecosystems
The influence of vegetation dynamics on anthropogenic climate change
Quantifying the thermodynamic entropy budget of the land surface: is this useful?
Lina Teckentrup, Martin G. De Kauwe, Gab Abramowitz, Andrew J. Pitman, Anna M. Ukkola, Sanaa Hobeichi, Bastien François, and Benjamin Smith
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 549–576, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-549-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-549-2023, 2023
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Studies analyzing the impact of the future climate on ecosystems employ climate projections simulated by global circulation models. These climate projections display biases that translate into significant uncertainty in projections of the future carbon cycle. Here, we test different methods to constrain the uncertainty in simulations of the carbon cycle over Australia. We find that all methods reduce the bias in the steady-state carbon variables but that temporal properties do not improve.
Raed Hamed, Sem Vijverberg, Anne F. Van Loon, Jeroen Aerts, and Dim Coumou
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 255–272, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-255-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-255-2023, 2023
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Spatially compounding soy harvest failures can have important global impacts. Using causal networks, we show that soy yields are predominately driven by summer soil moisture conditions in North and South America. Summer soil moisture is affected by antecedent soil moisture and by remote extra-tropical SST patterns in both hemispheres. Both of these soil moisture drivers are again influenced by ENSO. Our results highlight physical pathways by which ENSO can drive spatially compounding impacts.
Wenxue Fu, Lei Tian, Yu Tao, Mingyang Li, and Huadong Guo
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 223–239, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-223-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-223-2023, 2023
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Climate change has been proven to be an indisputable fact and to be occurring at a faster rate in boreal forest areas. The results of this paper show that boreal forest coverage has shown an increasing trend in the past 3 decades, and the area of broad-leaved forests has increased more rapidly than that of coniferous forests. In addition, temperature rather than precipitation is the main climate factor that is driving change.
Marco Hofmann, Claudia Volosciuk, Martin Dubrovský, Douglas Maraun, and Hans R. Schultz
Earth Syst. Dynam., 13, 911–934, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-911-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-911-2022, 2022
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We modelled water budget developments of viticultural growing regions on the spatial scale of individual vineyard plots with respect to landscape features like the available water capacity of the soils, slope, and aspect of the sites. We used an ensemble of climate simulations and focused on the occurrence of drought stress. The results show a high bandwidth of projected changes where the risk of potential drought stress becomes more apparent in steep-slope regions.
Markku Viitasalo and Erik Bonsdorff
Earth Syst. Dynam., 13, 711–747, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-711-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-711-2022, 2022
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Climate change has multiple effects on Baltic Sea species, communities and ecosystem functioning. Effects on species distribution, eutrophication and trophic interactions are expected. We review these effects, identify knowledge gaps and draw conclusions based on recent (2010–2021) field, experimental and modelling research. An extensive summary table is compiled to highlight the multifaceted impacts of climate-change-driven processes in the Baltic Sea.
Lorenz Hänchen, Cornelia Klein, Fabien Maussion, Wolfgang Gurgiser, Pierluigi Calanca, and Georg Wohlfahrt
Earth Syst. Dynam., 13, 595–611, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-595-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-595-2022, 2022
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To date, farmers' perceptions of hydrological changes do not match analysis of meteorological data. In contrast to rainfall data, we find greening of vegetation, indicating increased water availability in the past decades. The start of the season is highly variable, making farmers' perceptions comprehensible. We show that the El Niño–Southern Oscillation has complex effects on vegetation seasonality but does not drive the greening we observe. Improved onset forecasts could help local farmers.
Céline Gommet, Ronny Lauerwald, Philippe Ciais, Bertrand Guenet, Haicheng Zhang, and Pierre Regnier
Earth Syst. Dynam., 13, 393–418, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-393-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-393-2022, 2022
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Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) leaching from soils into river networks is an important component of the land carbon (C) budget, but its spatiotemporal variation is not yet fully constrained. We use a land surface model to simulate the present-day land C budget at the European scale, including leaching of DOC from the soil. We found average leaching of 14.3 Tg C yr−1 (0.6 % of terrestrial net primary production) with seasonal variations. We determine runoff and temperature to be the main drivers.
Raed Hamed, Anne F. Van Loon, Jeroen Aerts, and Dim Coumou
Earth Syst. Dynam., 12, 1371–1391, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1371-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1371-2021, 2021
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Soy yields in the US are affected by climate variability. We identify the main within-season climate drivers and highlight potential compound events and associated agricultural impacts. Our results show that soy yields are most negatively influenced by the combination of high temperature and low soil moisture during the summer crop reproductive period. Furthermore, we highlight the role of temperature and moisture coupling across the year in generating these hot–dry extremes and linked impacts.
Ana Bastos, René Orth, Markus Reichstein, Philippe Ciais, Nicolas Viovy, Sönke Zaehle, Peter Anthoni, Almut Arneth, Pierre Gentine, Emilie Joetzjer, Sebastian Lienert, Tammas Loughran, Patrick C. McGuire, Sungmin O, Julia Pongratz, and Stephen Sitch
Earth Syst. Dynam., 12, 1015–1035, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1015-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1015-2021, 2021
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Temperate biomes in Europe are not prone to recurrent dry and hot conditions in summer. However, these conditions may become more frequent in the coming decades. Because stress conditions can leave legacies for many years, this may result in reduced ecosystem resilience under recurrent stress. We assess vegetation vulnerability to the hot and dry summers in 2018 and 2019 in Europe and find the important role of inter-annual legacy effects from 2018 in modulating the impacts of the 2019 event.
Pascal Yiou and Nicolas Viovy
Earth Syst. Dynam., 12, 997–1013, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-997-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-997-2021, 2021
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This paper presents a model of tree ruin as a response to drought hazards. This model is inspired by a standard model of ruin in the insurance industry. We illustrate how ruin can occur in present-day conditions and the sensitivity of ruin and time to ruin to hazard statistical properties. We also show how tree strategies to cope with hazards can affect their long-term reserves and the probability of ruin.
Mengyuan Mu, Martin G. De Kauwe, Anna M. Ukkola, Andy J. Pitman, Weidong Guo, Sanaa Hobeichi, and Peter R. Briggs
Earth Syst. Dynam., 12, 919–938, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-919-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-919-2021, 2021
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Groundwater can buffer the impacts of drought and heatwaves on ecosystems, which is often neglected in model studies. Using a land surface model with groundwater, we explained how groundwater sustains transpiration and eases heat pressure on plants in heatwaves during multi-year droughts. Our results showed the groundwater’s influences diminish as drought extends and are regulated by plant physiology. We suggest neglecting groundwater in models may overstate projected future heatwave intensity.
Anita D. Bayer, Richard Fuchs, Reinhard Mey, Andreas Krause, Peter H. Verburg, Peter Anthoni, and Almut Arneth
Earth Syst. Dynam., 12, 327–351, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-327-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-327-2021, 2021
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Many projections of future land-use/-cover exist. We evaluate a number of these and determine the variability they cause in ecosystems and their services. We found that projections differ a lot in regional patterns, with some patterns being at least questionable in a historical context. Across ecosystem service indicators, resulting variability until 2040 was highest in crop production. Results emphasize that such variability should be acknowledged in assessments of future ecosystem provisions.
Binghao Jia, Xin Luo, Ximing Cai, Atul Jain, Deborah N. Huntzinger, Zhenghui Xie, Ning Zeng, Jiafu Mao, Xiaoying Shi, Akihiko Ito, Yaxing Wei, Hanqin Tian, Benjamin Poulter, Dan Hayes, and Kevin Schaefer
Earth Syst. Dynam., 11, 235–249, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-235-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-235-2020, 2020
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We quantitatively examined the relative contributions of climate change, land
use and land cover change, and elevated CO2 to interannual variations and seasonal cycle amplitude of gross primary productivity (GPP) in China based on multi-model ensemble simulations. The contributions of major subregions to the temporal change in China's total GPP are also presented. This work may help us better understand GPP spatiotemporal patterns and their responses to regional changes and human activities.
Alexander J. Winkler, Ranga B. Myneni, and Victor Brovkin
Earth Syst. Dynam., 10, 501–523, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-501-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-501-2019, 2019
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The concept of
emergent constraintsis a key method to reduce uncertainty in multi-model climate projections using historical simulations and observations. Here, we present an in-depth analysis of the applicability of the method and uncover possible limitations. Key limitations are a lack of comparability (temporal, spatial, and conceptual) between models and observations and the disagreement between models on system dynamics throughout different levels of atmospheric CO2 concentration.
Changjin Zhao, Ute Daewel, and Corinna Schrum
Earth Syst. Dynam., 10, 287–317, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-287-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-287-2019, 2019
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Our study highlights the importance of tides in controlling the spatial and temporal distributions North Sea primary production based on numerical experiments. We identified two different response chains acting in different regions of the North Sea. (i) In the southern shallow areas, strong tidal mixing dilutes phytoplankton concentrations and increases turbidity, thus decreasing NPP. (ii) In the frontal regions, tidal mixing infuses nutrients into the surface mixed layer, thus increasing NPP.
Ye Liu, Yongkang Xue, Glen MacDonald, Peter Cox, and Zhengqiu Zhang
Earth Syst. Dynam., 10, 9–29, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-9-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-9-2019, 2019
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Climate regime shift during the 1980s identified by abrupt change in temperature, precipitation, etc. had a substantial impact on the ecosystem at different scales. Our paper identifies the spatial and temporal characteristics of the effects of climate variability, global warming, and eCO2 on ecosystem trends before and after the shift. We found about 15 % (20 %) of the global land area had enhanced positive trend (trend sign reversed) during the 1980s due to climate regime shift.
Roland Baatz, Pamela L. Sullivan, Li Li, Samantha R. Weintraub, Henry W. Loescher, Michael Mirtl, Peter M. Groffman, Diana H. Wall, Michael Young, Tim White, Hang Wen, Steffen Zacharias, Ingolf Kühn, Jianwu Tang, Jérôme Gaillardet, Isabelle Braud, Alejandro N. Flores, Praveen Kumar, Henry Lin, Teamrat Ghezzehei, Julia Jones, Henry L. Gholz, Harry Vereecken, and Kris Van Looy
Earth Syst. Dynam., 9, 593–609, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-593-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-593-2018, 2018
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Focusing on the usage of integrated models and in situ Earth observatory networks, three challenges are identified to advance understanding of ESD, in particular to strengthen links between biotic and abiotic, and above- and below-ground processes. We propose developing a model platform for interdisciplinary usage, to formalize current network infrastructure based on complementarities and operational synergies, and to extend the reanalysis concept to the ecosystem and critical zone.
Jun Wang, Ning Zeng, Meirong Wang, Fei Jiang, Hengmao Wang, and Ziqiang Jiang
Earth Syst. Dynam., 9, 1–14, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1-2018, 2018
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Behaviors of terrestrial ecosystems differ in different El Niños. We analyze terrestrial carbon cycle responses to two extreme El Niños (2015/16 and 1997/98), and find large differences. We find that global land–atmosphere carbon flux anomaly was about 2 times smaller in 2015/16 than in 1997/98 event, without the obvious lagged response. Then we illustrate the climatic and biological mechanisms of the different terrestrial carbon cycle responses in 2015/16 and 1997/98 El Niños regionally.
Ute Daewel and Corinna Schrum
Earth Syst. Dynam., 8, 801–815, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-801-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-801-2017, 2017
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Processes behind observed long-term variations in marine ecosystems are difficult to be deduced from in situ observations only. By statistically analysing a 61-year model simulation for the North Sea and Baltic Sea and additional model scenarios, we identified major modes of variability in the environmental variables and associated those with changes in primary production. We found that the dominant impact on changes in ecosystem productivity was introduced by modulations of the wind fields.
Minchao Wu, Guy Schurgers, Markku Rummukainen, Benjamin Smith, Patrick Samuelsson, Christer Jansson, Joe Siltberg, and Wilhelm May
Earth Syst. Dynam., 7, 627–647, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-627-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-627-2016, 2016
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On Earth, vegetation does not merely adapt to climate but also imposes significant influences on climate with both local and remote effects. In this study we evaluated the role of vegetation in African climate with a regional Earth system model. By the comparison between the experiments with and without dynamic vegetation changes, we found that vegetation can influence climate remotely, resulting in modulating rainfall patterns over Africa.
F. Langerwisch, A. Walz, A. Rammig, B. Tietjen, K. Thonicke, and W. Cramer
Earth Syst. Dynam., 7, 559–582, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-559-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-559-2016, 2016
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In Amazonia, carbon fluxes are considerably influenced by annual flooding. We applied the newly developed model RivCM to several climate change scenarios to estimate potential changes in riverine carbon. We find that climate change causes substantial changes in riverine organic and inorganic carbon, as well as changes in carbon exported to the atmosphere and ocean. Such changes could have local and regional impacts on the carbon budget of the whole Amazon basin and parts of the Atlantic Ocean.
Stefan C. Dekker, Margriet Groenendijk, Ben B. B. Booth, Chris Huntingford, and Peter M. Cox
Earth Syst. Dynam., 7, 525–533, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-525-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-525-2016, 2016
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Our analysis allows us to infer maps of changing plant water-use efficiency (WUE) for 1901–2010, using atmospheric observations of temperature, humidity and CO2. Our estimated increase in global WUE is consistent with the tree-ring and eddy covariance data, but much larger than the historical WUE increases simulated by Earth System Models (ESMs). We therefore conclude that the effects of increasing CO2 on plant WUE are significantly underestimated in the latest climate projections.
M. H. Vermeulen, B. J. Kruijt, T. Hickler, and P. Kabat
Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 485–503, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-485-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-485-2015, 2015
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We compared a process-based ecosystem model (LPJ-GUESS) with EC measurements to test whether observed interannual variability (IAV) in carbon and water fluxes can be reproduced because it is important to understand the driving mechanisms of IAV. We show that the model's mechanistic process representation for photosynthesis at low temperatures and during drought could be improved, but other process representations are still lacking in order to fully reproduce the observed IAV.
S. Missall, M. Welp, N. Thevs, A. Abliz, and Ü. Halik
Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 359–373, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-359-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-359-2015, 2015
M.-H. Cho, K.-O. Boo, G. M. Martin, J. Lee, and G.-H. Lim
Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 147–160, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-147-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-147-2015, 2015
Z. Yin, S. C. Dekker, B. J. J. M. van den Hurk, and H. A. Dijkstra
Earth Syst. Dynam., 5, 257–270, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-257-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-257-2014, 2014
S. Ostberg, W. Lucht, S. Schaphoff, and D. Gerten
Earth Syst. Dynam., 4, 347–357, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-347-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-347-2013, 2013
U. Port, V. Brovkin, and M. Claussen
Earth Syst. Dynam., 3, 233–243, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-3-233-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-3-233-2012, 2012
N. A. Brunsell, S. J. Schymanski, and A. Kleidon
Earth Syst. Dynam., 2, 87–103, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2-87-2011, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2-87-2011, 2011
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Short summary
Near-natural Himalayan treelines are usually krummholz treelines, which are relatively unresponsive to climate change. Intense recruitment of treeline trees suggests a great potential for future treeline advance. Competitive abilities of tree seedlings within krummholz thickets and dwarf scrub heaths will be a major source of variation in treeline dynamics. Tree growth-climate relationships show mature treeline trees to be responsive in particular to high pre-monsoon temperature trends.
Near-natural Himalayan treelines are usually krummholz treelines, which are relatively...
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