Articles | Volume 18, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-313-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-313-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
17 Feb 2022
Research article |
| 17 Feb 2022
| 17 Feb 2022
Effect of nitrogen limitation and soil biophysics on Holocene greening of the Sahara
Jooyeop Lee
Ecosystem–Atmosphere Process Laboratory, Department of Atmospheric
Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)
Martin Claussen
Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany
Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN),
Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Jeongwon Kim
Ecosystem–Atmosphere Process Laboratory, Department of Atmospheric
Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)
Je-Woo Hong
Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change, Korea Environment
Institute, Sejong, Korea (Republic of)
In-Sun Song
Mathematical Atmospheric Physics Lab, Department of Atmospheric
Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)
Ecosystem–Atmosphere Process Laboratory, Department of Atmospheric
Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Mateo Duque-Villegas, Martin Claussen, Thomas Kleinen, Jürgen Bader, and Christian H. Reick
Clim. Past, 21, 773–794, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-773-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-773-2025, 2025
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We simulate the last glacial cycle with a comprehensive model of the Earth system and investigate vegetation cover change in northern Africa during the last four African Humid Periods (AHPs). We find a common pattern of vegetation change and relate it with climatic factors in order to discuss how vegetation might have evolved during even older AHPs. This scaling relationship we find according to past AHPs fails to account for projected changes in northern Africa under strong greenhouse gas warming.
Pin-Hsin Hu, Christian H. Reick, Reiner Schnur, Axel Kleidon, and Martin Claussen
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We introduce the new plant functional diversity model JeDi-BACH, a novel tool that integrates the Jena Diversity Model (JeDi) within the land component of the ICON Earth System Model. JeDi-BACH captures a richer set of plant trait variations based on environmental filtering and functional tradeoffs without a priori knowledge of the vegetation types. JeDi-BACH represents a significant advancement in modeling the complex interactions between plant functional diversity and climate.
Nora Farina Specht, Martin Claussen, and Thomas Kleinen
Clim. Past, 20, 1595–1613, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1595-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1595-2024, 2024
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We close the terrestrial water cycle across the Sahara and Sahel by integrating a new endorheic-lake model into a climate model. A factor analysis of mid-Holocene simulations shows that both dynamic lakes and dynamic vegetation individually contribute to a precipitation increase over northern Africa that is collectively greater than that caused by the interaction between lake and vegetation dynamics. Thus, the lake–vegetation interaction causes a relative drying response across the entire Sahel.
Wonseok Lee, In-Sun Song, Byeong-Gwon Song, and Yong Ha Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3559–3575, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3559-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3559-2024, 2024
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We investigate the seasonal variation of westward-propagating quasi-10 d wave (Q10DW) activity in the southern high-latitude mesosphere. The observed Q10DW is amplified around equinoxes. The model experiments indicate that the Q10DW can be enhanced in the high-latitude mesosphere due to large-scale instability. However, an excessively strong instability in the summer mesosphere spuriously generates the Q10DW in the model, potentially leading to inaccurate model dynamics.
Kyoung-Min Kim, Si-Wan Kim, Seunghwan Seo, Donald R. Blake, Seogju Cho, James H. Crawford, Louisa K. Emmons, Alan Fried, Jay R. Herman, Jinkyu Hong, Jinsang Jung, Gabriele G. Pfister, Andrew J. Weinheimer, Jung-Hun Woo, and Qiang Zhang
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1931–1955, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1931-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1931-2024, 2024
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Three emission inventories were evaluated for East Asia using data acquired during a field campaign in 2016. The inventories successfully reproduced the daily variations of ozone and nitrogen dioxide. However, the spatial distributions of model ozone did not fully agree with the observations. Additionally, all simulations underestimated carbon monoxide and volatile organic compound (VOC) levels. Increasing VOC emissions over South Korea resulted in improved ozone simulations.
Leonore Jungandreas, Cathy Hohenegger, and Martin Claussen
Clim. Past, 19, 637–664, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-637-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-637-2023, 2023
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Increasing the vegetation cover over mid-Holcocene North Africa expands the West African monsoon ∼ 4–5° further north. This northward shift of monsoonal precipitation is caused by interactions of the land surface with large-scale monsoon circulation and the coupling of soil moisture to precipitation. We highlight the importance of considering not only how soil moisture influences precipitation but also how different precipitation characteristics alter the soil hydrology via runoff generation.
Mathew Lipson, Sue Grimmond, Martin Best, Winston T. L. Chow, Andreas Christen, Nektarios Chrysoulakis, Andrew Coutts, Ben Crawford, Stevan Earl, Jonathan Evans, Krzysztof Fortuniak, Bert G. Heusinkveld, Je-Woo Hong, Jinkyu Hong, Leena Järvi, Sungsoo Jo, Yeon-Hee Kim, Simone Kotthaus, Keunmin Lee, Valéry Masson, Joseph P. McFadden, Oliver Michels, Wlodzimierz Pawlak, Matthias Roth, Hirofumi Sugawara, Nigel Tapper, Erik Velasco, and Helen Claire Ward
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 5157–5178, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5157-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5157-2022, 2022
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We describe a new openly accessible collection of atmospheric observations from 20 cities around the world, capturing 50 site years. The observations capture local meteorology (temperature, humidity, wind, etc.) and the energy fluxes between the land and atmosphere (e.g. radiation and sensible and latent heat fluxes). These observations can be used to improve our understanding of urban climate processes and to test the accuracy of urban climate models.
Lim-Seok Chang, Donghee Kim, Hyunkee Hong, Deok-Rae Kim, Jeong-Ah Yu, Kwangyul Lee, Hanlim Lee, Daewon Kim, Jinkyu Hong, Hyun-Young Jo, and Cheol-Hee Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10703–10720, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10703-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10703-2022, 2022
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Our study explored the synergy of combined column and surface measurements during GMAP (GEMS Map of Air Pollution) campaign. It has several points to note for vertical distribution analysis. Particularly under prevailing local wind meteorological conditions, Pandora-based vertical structures sometimes showed negative correlations between column and surface measurements. Vertical analysis should be done carefully in some local meteorological conditions when employing either surface or columns.
Mateo Duque-Villegas, Martin Claussen, Victor Brovkin, and Thomas Kleinen
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Using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we quantify contributions of the Earth's orbit, greenhouse gases (GHGs) and ice sheets to the strength of Saharan greening during late Quaternary African humid periods (AHPs). Orbital forcing is found as the dominant factor, having a critical threshold and accounting for most of the changes in the vegetation response. However, results suggest that GHGs may influence the orbital threshold and thus may play a pivotal role for future AHPs.
Nora Farina Specht, Martin Claussen, and Thomas Kleinen
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Palaeoenvironmental records only provide a fragmentary picture of the lake and wetland extent in North Africa during the mid-Holocene. Therefore, we investigate the possible range of mid-Holocene precipitation changes caused by an estimated small and maximum lake extent and a maximum wetland extent. Results show a particularly strong monsoon precipitation response to lakes and wetlands over the Western Sahara and an increased monsoon precipitation when replacing lakes with vegetated wetlands.
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In this study, we proposed an inversion of the dielectric mixing model for a 50 Hz soil sensor for agricultural organic soil. This model can reflect the variability of soil organic matter (SOM) in wilting point and porosity, which play a critical role in improving the accuracy of SM estimation, using a dielectric-based soil sensor. The results of statistical analyses demonstrated a higher performance of the new model than the factory setting probe algorithm.
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Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, Stephan J. Lorenz, Michael Sigl, Matthew Toohey, and Ulrike Herzschuh
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Using the comprehensive Earth system model, MPI-ESM1.2, we explore the global Holocene vegetation changes and interpret them in terms of the Holocene climate change. The model results reveal that most of the Holocene vegetation transitions seen outside the high northern latitudes can be attributed to modifications in the intensity of the global summer monsoons.
Leonore Jungandreas, Cathy Hohenegger, and Martin Claussen
Clim. Past, 17, 1665–1684, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1665-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1665-2021, 2021
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We investigate the impact of explicitly resolving convection on the mid-Holocene West African Monsoon rain belt by employing the ICON climate model in high resolution. While the spatial distribution and intensity of the precipitation are improved by this technique, the monsoon extents further north and the mean summer rainfall is higher in the simulation with parameterized convection.
Yongkang Xue, Tandong Yao, Aaron A. Boone, Ismaila Diallo, Ye Liu, Xubin Zeng, William K. M. Lau, Shiori Sugimoto, Qi Tang, Xiaoduo Pan, Peter J. van Oevelen, Daniel Klocke, Myung-Seo Koo, Tomonori Sato, Zhaohui Lin, Yuhei Takaya, Constantin Ardilouze, Stefano Materia, Subodh K. Saha, Retish Senan, Tetsu Nakamura, Hailan Wang, Jing Yang, Hongliang Zhang, Mei Zhao, Xin-Zhong Liang, J. David Neelin, Frederic Vitart, Xin Li, Ping Zhao, Chunxiang Shi, Weidong Guo, Jianping Tang, Miao Yu, Yun Qian, Samuel S. P. Shen, Yang Zhang, Kun Yang, Ruby Leung, Yuan Qiu, Daniele Peano, Xin Qi, Yanling Zhan, Michael A. Brunke, Sin Chan Chou, Michael Ek, Tianyi Fan, Hong Guan, Hai Lin, Shunlin Liang, Helin Wei, Shaocheng Xie, Haoran Xu, Weiping Li, Xueli Shi, Paulo Nobre, Yan Pan, Yi Qin, Jeff Dozier, Craig R. Ferguson, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Qing Bao, Jinming Feng, Jinkyu Hong, Songyou Hong, Huilin Huang, Duoying Ji, Zhenming Ji, Shichang Kang, Yanluan Lin, Weiguang Liu, Ryan Muncaster, Patricia de Rosnay, Hiroshi G. Takahashi, Guiling Wang, Shuyu Wang, Weicai Wang, Xu Zhou, and Yuejian Zhu
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 4465–4494, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4465-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4465-2021, 2021
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The subseasonal prediction of extreme hydroclimate events such as droughts/floods has remained stubbornly low for years. This paper presents a new international initiative which, for the first time, introduces spring land surface temperature anomalies over high mountains to improve precipitation prediction through remote effects of land–atmosphere interactions. More than 40 institutions worldwide are participating in this effort. The experimental protocol and preliminary results are presented.
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Short summary
It is still a challenge to simulate the so–called Green Sahara (GS), which was a wet and vegetative Sahara region in the mid–Holocene, using current climate models. Our analysis shows that Holocene greening is simulated better if the amount of soil nitrogen and soil texture is properly modified for the humid and vegetative GS period. Future climate simulation needs to consider consequent changes in soil nitrogen and texture with changes in vegetation cover for proper climate simulations.
It is still a challenge to simulate the so–called Green Sahara (GS), which was a wet and...
