Simulating the biogeochemical and biogeophysical impacts of transient land cover change and wood harvest in the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4) from 1850 to 2100

Journal Article · Tue May 08 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Journal of Climate

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00256.1· OSTI ID:1254080

Lawrence, Peter J. ^[1]; Feddema, Johannes J. ^[2]; Bonan, Gordon B. ^[1]; Meehl, Gerald A. ^[1]; O'Neill, Brian C. ^[1]; Levis, Sam ^[1]; Lawrence, David M. ^[1]; Oleson, Keith W. ^[1]; Kluzek, Erik ^[1]; Lindsay, Keith ^[1]; Thornton, Peter E. ^[3]

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1. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
2. Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

To assess the climate impacts of historical and projected land cover change and land use in the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4) we have developed new time series of transient Community Land Model (CLM4) Plant Functional Type (PFT) parameters and wood harvest parameters. The new parameters capture the dynamics of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) land cover change and wood harvest trajectories for the historical period from 1850 to 2005, and for the four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) periods from 2006 to 2100. Analysis of the biogeochemical impacts of land cover change in CCSM4 with the parameters found the model produced an historical cumulative land use flux of 148.4 PgC from 1850 to 2005, which was in good agreement with other global estimates of around 156 PgC for the same period. The biogeophysical impacts of only applying the transient land cover change parameters in CCSM4 were cooling of the near surface atmospheric over land by -0.1OC, through increased surface albedo and reduced shortwave radiation absorption. When combined with other transient climate forcings, the higher albedo from land cover change was overwhelmed at global scales by decreases in snow albedo from black carbon deposition and from high latitude warming. At regional scales however the land cover change forcing persisted resulting in reduced warming, with the biggest impacts in eastern North America. The future CCSM4 RCP simulations showed that the CLM4 transient PFT and wood harvest parameters could be used to represent a wide range of human land cover change and land use scenarios. Furthermore, these simulations ranged from the RCP 4.5 reforestation scenario that was able to draw down 82.6 PgC from the atmosphere, to the RCP 8.5 wide scale deforestation scenario that released 171.6 PgC to the atmosphere.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1254080
• Journal Information: Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 25; ISSN 0894-8755
• Publisher: American Meteorological Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
albedo
biosphere-atmospheric interaction
climate change
climate models
ecosystem effects
land surface model