Articles | Volume 19, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-637-2023
© Author(s) 2023. 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-19-637-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
21 Mar 2023
Research article |
| 21 Mar 2023
| 21 Mar 2023
How does the explicit treatment of convection alter the precipitation–soil hydrology interaction in the mid-Holocene African humid period?
Leonore Jungandreas
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bundesstraße 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
now at: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle, Jena, Leipzig, Germany
Cathy Hohenegger
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bundesstraße 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Martin Claussen
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bundesstraße 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Universität Hamburg, Bundesstraße 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Related authors
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Mateo Duque-Villegas, Martin Claussen, Thomas Kleinen, Jürgen Bader, and Christian H. Reick
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2024-61, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2024-61, 2024
Preprint under review for CP
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We simulate the last glacial cycle with a comprehensive Earth system model and investigate vegetation change in North Africa during the last four African humid periods (AHPs). We find a common AHP pattern of vegetation change and relate it to climatic factors to discuss how vegetation might have evolved in much older AHPs. The relationship we found for past AHPs does not hold for projected changes in North Africa under strong greenhouse gas warming.
Pin-Hsin Hu, Christian H. Reick, Reiner Schnur, Axel Kleidon, and Martin Claussen
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-111, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-111, 2024
Preprint under review for GMD
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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.
Cathy Hohenegger, Peter Korn, Leonidas Linardakis, René Redler, Reiner Schnur, Panagiotis Adamidis, Jiawei Bao, Swantje Bastin, Milad Behravesh, Martin Bergemann, Joachim Biercamp, Hendryk Bockelmann, Renate Brokopf, Nils Brüggemann, Lucas Casaroli, Fatemeh Chegini, George Datseris, Monika Esch, Geet George, Marco Giorgetta, Oliver Gutjahr, Helmuth Haak, Moritz Hanke, Tatiana Ilyina, Thomas Jahns, Johann Jungclaus, Marcel Kern, Daniel Klocke, Lukas Kluft, Tobias Kölling, Luis Kornblueh, Sergey Kosukhin, Clarissa Kroll, Junhong Lee, Thorsten Mauritsen, Carolin Mehlmann, Theresa Mieslinger, Ann Kristin Naumann, Laura Paccini, Angel Peinado, Divya Sri Praturi, Dian Putrasahan, Sebastian Rast, Thomas Riddick, Niklas Roeber, Hauke Schmidt, Uwe Schulzweida, Florian Schütte, Hans Segura, Radomyra Shevchenko, Vikram Singh, Mia Specht, Claudia Christine Stephan, Jin-Song von Storch, Raphaela Vogel, Christian Wengel, Marius Winkler, Florian Ziemen, Jochem Marotzke, and Bjorn Stevens
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 779–811, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-779-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-779-2023, 2023
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Models of the Earth system used to understand climate and predict its change typically employ a grid spacing of about 100 km. Yet, many atmospheric and oceanic processes occur on much smaller scales. In this study, we present a new model configuration designed for the simulation of the components of the Earth system and their interactions at kilometer and smaller scales, allowing an explicit representation of the main drivers of the flow of energy and matter by solving the underlying equations.
Mateo Duque-Villegas, Martin Claussen, Victor Brovkin, and Thomas Kleinen
Clim. Past, 18, 1897–1914, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1897-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1897-2022, 2022
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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.
Bastian Kirsch, Cathy Hohenegger, Daniel Klocke, Rainer Senke, Michael Offermann, and Felix Ament
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3531–3548, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3531-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3531-2022, 2022
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Conventional observation networks are too coarse to resolve the horizontal structure of kilometer-scale atmospheric processes. We present the FESST@HH field experiment that took place in Hamburg (Germany) during summer 2020 and featured a dense network of 103 custom-built, low-cost weather stations. The data set is capable of providing new insights into the structure of convective cold pools and the nocturnal urban heat island and variations of local temperature fluctuations.
Nora Farina Specht, Martin Claussen, and Thomas Kleinen
Clim. Past, 18, 1035–1046, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1035-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1035-2022, 2022
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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.
Jooyeop Lee, Martin Claussen, Jeongwon Kim, Je-Woo Hong, In-Sun Song, and Jinkyu Hong
Clim. Past, 18, 313–326, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-313-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-313-2022, 2022
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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.
Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, Stephan J. Lorenz, Michael Sigl, Matthew Toohey, and Ulrike Herzschuh
Clim. Past, 17, 2481–2513, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2481-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2481-2021, 2021
Short summary
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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.
Jule Radtke, Thorsten Mauritsen, and Cathy Hohenegger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 3275–3288, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3275-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3275-2021, 2021
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Shallow trade wind clouds are a key source of uncertainty to projections of the Earth's changing climate. We perform high-resolution simulations of trade cumulus and investigate how the representation and climate feedback of these clouds depend on the specific grid spacing. We find that the cloud feedback is positive when simulated with kilometre but near zero when simulated with hectometre grid spacing. These findings suggest that storm-resolving models may exaggerate the trade cloud feedback.
Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, Stephan J. Lorenz, and Timothy Shanahan
Clim. Past, 16, 117–140, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-117-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-117-2020, 2020
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We analyse the end of the African humid period (AHP) in a transient Holocene simulation performed with the comprehensive Earth system model MPI-ESM1.2. The model reproduces the time-transgressive end of the AHP evident in proxy data and indicates that changes in moisture can be attributed to the retreat of the summer monsoon and to changes in the extratropical troughs. The spatially varying impact of these systems imposes regionally different responses to the Holocene insolation change.
Victor Brovkin, Stephan Lorenz, Thomas Raddatz, Tatiana Ilyina, Irene Stemmler, Matthew Toohey, and Martin Claussen
Biogeosciences, 16, 2543–2555, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2543-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2543-2019, 2019
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Mechanisms of atmospheric CO2 growth by 20 ppm from 6000 BCE to the pre-industrial period are still uncertain. We apply the Earth system model MPI-ESM-LR for two transient simulations of the climate–carbon cycle. An additional process, e.g. carbonate accumulation on shelves, is required for consistency with ice-core CO2 data. Our simulations support the hypothesis that the ocean was a source of CO2 until the late Holocene when anthropogenic CO2 sources started to affect atmospheric CO2.
Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, and Victor Brovkin
Clim. Past, 15, 335–366, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-335-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-335-2019, 2019
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A simple but powerful method for the biomisation of plant functional type distributions is introduced and tested for six different dynamic global vegetation models based on pre-industrial and palaeo-simulations. The method facilitates the direct comparison between vegetation distributions simulated by different Earth system models and between model results and the pollen-based biome reconstructions. It is therefore a powerful tool for the evaluation of Earth system models.
Uwe Mikolajewicz, Florian Ziemen, Guido Cioni, Martin Claussen, Klaus Fraedrich, Marvin Heidkamp, Cathy Hohenegger, Diego Jimenez de la Cuesta, Marie-Luise Kapsch, Alexander Lemburg, Thorsten Mauritsen, Katharina Meraner, Niklas Röber, Hauke Schmidt, Katharina D. Six, Irene Stemmler, Talia Tamarin-Brodsky, Alexander Winkler, Xiuhua Zhu, and Bjorn Stevens
Earth Syst. Dynam., 9, 1191–1215, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1191-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1191-2018, 2018
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Model experiments show that changing the sense of Earth's rotation has relatively little impact on the globally and zonally averaged energy budgets but leads to large shifts in continental climates and patterns of precipitation. The retrograde world is greener as the desert area shrinks. Deep water formation shifts from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific with subsequent changes in ocean overturning. Over large areas of the Indian Ocean, cyanobacteria dominate over bulk phytoplankton.
Sabine Egerer, Martin Claussen, and Christian Reick
Clim. Past, 14, 1051–1066, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1051-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1051-2018, 2018
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We find a rapid increase in simulated dust deposition between 6 and
4 ka BP that is fairly consistent with an abrupt change in dust deposition that was observed in marine sediment records at around 5 ka BP. This rapid change is caused by a rapid increase in simulated dust emissions in the western Sahara due to a fast decline in vegetation cover and a locally strong reduction of lake area. Our study identifies spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the transition of the North African landscape.
Irina Y. Petrova, Chiel C. van Heerwaarden, Cathy Hohenegger, and Françoise Guichard
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3275–3294, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3275-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3275-2018, 2018
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In North Africa rain storms can be as vital as they are devastating. The present study uses multi-year satellite data to better understand how and where soil moisture conditions affect development of rainfall in the area. Our results reveal two major regions in the southwest and southeast, where drier soils show higher potential to cause rainfall development. This knowledge is essential for the hydrological sector, and can be further used by models to improve prediction of rainfall and droughts.
Guido Cioni and Cathy Hohenegger
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3197–3212, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3197-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3197-2018, 2018
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Precipitating thunderstorms can occasionally be triggered by the propagation of a front associated with a circulation similar to a land–sea breeze but caused by the contrast of soil patches with different moisture contents. In this study, using an idealized framework, we quantify which fraction of surface rain comes from the contribution of the aforementioned front and which fraction comes from local evaporation. Results show that these two major sources contribute differently.
Sirisha Kalidindi, Christian H. Reick, Thomas Raddatz, and Martin Claussen
Earth Syst. Dynam., 9, 739–756, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-739-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-739-2018, 2018
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Using climate simulations, we investigate the role of water recycling in shaping the climate of low-obliquity Earth-like terra-planets. By such a mechanism feeding water back from the extra-tropics to the tropics, the planet can assume two drastically different climate states differing by more than 35 K in global temperature. We describe the bifurcation between the two states occurring upon changes in surface albedo and argue that the bistability hints at a wider habitable zone for such planets.
Markus Adloff, Christian H. Reick, and Martin Claussen
Earth Syst. Dynam., 9, 413–425, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-413-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-413-2018, 2018
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Computer simulations show that during an ice age a strong atmospheric CO2 increase would have resulted in stronger carbon uptake of the continents than today. Causes are the larger potential of glacial vegetation to increase its photosynthetic efficiency under increasing CO2 and the smaller amount of carbon in extratropical soils during an ice age that can be released under greenhouse warming. Hence, for different climates the Earth system is differently sensitive to carbon cycle perturbations.
Vivienne P. Groner, Thomas Raddatz, Christian H. Reick, and Martin Claussen
Biogeosciences, 15, 1947–1968, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1947-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1947-2018, 2018
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We show that plant functional diversity significantly affects climate–vegetation interaction and the climate–vegetation system stability in response to external forcing using a series of coupled land–atmosphere simulation. Our findings raise the question of how realistically Earth system models can actually represent climate–vegetation interaction, considering the incomplete representation of plant functional diversity in the current generation of land surface models.
Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, Jian Ni, Xianyong Cao, Yongbo Wang, Nils Fischer, Madlene Pfeiffer, Liya Jin, Vyacheslav Khon, Sebastian Wagner, Kerstin Haberkorn, and Ulrike Herzschuh
Clim. Past, 13, 107–134, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-107-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-107-2017, 2017
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The vegetation distribution in eastern Asia is supposed to be very sensitive to climate change. Since proxy records are scarce, hitherto a mechanistic understanding of the past spatio-temporal climate–vegetation relationship is lacking. To assess the Holocene vegetation change, we forced the diagnostic biome model BIOME4 with climate anomalies of different transient climate simulations.
Alexander Lemburg, Martin Claussen, and Felix Ament
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2016-68, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2016-68, 2016
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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The deforestation of Easter Island several hundred years ago might have influenced its local near-surface climate. With a series of numerical model experiments we investigate the impact of deforestation on precipitation and near-surface climate. We find that a deforested Easter Island appears to be significantly less resistant to drought than a forested island and thus, deforestation has probably exacerbated the effects of past climate drought spells on Easter Island's socio-ecological systems.
Ulrike Port, Martin Claussen, and Victor Brovkin
Earth Syst. Dynam., 7, 535–547, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-535-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-535-2016, 2016
Sabine Egerer, Martin Claussen, Christian Reick, and Tanja Stanelle
Clim. Past, 12, 1009–1027, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1009-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1009-2016, 2016
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We demonstrate for the first time the direct link between dust accumulation in marine sediment cores and Saharan land surface by simulating the mid-Holocene and pre-industrial dust cycle as a function of Saharan land surface cover and atmosphere-ocean conditions using the coupled atmosphere-aerosol model ECHAM6-HAM2.1. Mid-Holocene surface characteristics, including vegetation cover and lake surface area, are derived from proxy data and simulations.
T. Brücher, M. Claussen, and T. Raddatz
Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 769–780, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-769-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-769-2015, 2015
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A major link between climate and humans in northern Africa, and the Sahel in particular, is land use. We assess possible feedbacks between the type of land use and harvest intensity and climate by analysing a series of idealized GCM experiments using the MPI-ESM. Our study suggests marginal feedback between land use changes and climate changes triggered by strong greenhouse gas emissions.
U. Port and M. Claussen
Clim. Past, 11, 1563–1574, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1563-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1563-2015, 2015
V. P. Groner, M. Claussen, and C. Reick
Clim. Past, 11, 1361–1374, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1361-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1361-2015, 2015
U. Port, M. Claussen, and V. Brovkin
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cpd-11-997-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cpd-11-997-2015, 2015
Revised manuscript not accepted
A. Dallmeyer, M. Claussen, N. Fischer, K. Haberkorn, S. Wagner, M. Pfeiffer, L. Jin, V. Khon, Y. Wang, and U. Herzschuh
Clim. Past, 11, 305–326, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-305-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-305-2015, 2015
F. S. E. Vamborg, V. Brovkin, and M. Claussen
Earth Syst. Dynam., 5, 89–101, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-89-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-89-2014, 2014
M. Claussen, K. Selent, V. Brovkin, T. Raddatz, and V. Gayler
Biogeosciences, 10, 3593–3604, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-3593-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-3593-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Vegetation Dynamics | Archive: Modelling only | Timescale: Holocene
The challenge of comparing pollen-based quantitative vegetation reconstructions with outputs from vegetation models – a European perspective
Effect of nitrogen limitation and soil biophysics on Holocene greening of the Sahara
Holocene vegetation transitions and their climatic drivers in MPI-ESM1.2
The end of the African humid period as seen by a transient comprehensive Earth system model simulation of the last 8000 years
Harmonising plant functional type distributions for evaluating Earth system models
Controls on fire activity over the Holocene
North African vegetation–precipitation feedback in early and mid-Holocene climate simulations with CCSM3-DGVM
Comparing modelled fire dynamics with charcoal records for the Holocene
Climate and CO2 modulate the C3/C4 balance and δ13C signal in simulated vegetation
Anne Dallmeyer, Anneli Poska, Laurent Marquer, Andrea Seim, and Marie-José Gaillard
Clim. Past, 19, 1531–1557, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1531-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1531-2023, 2023
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We compare past tree cover changes in Europe during the last 8000 years simulated with two dynamic global vegetation models and inferred from pollen data. The major model–data mismatch is related to the much earlier onset of anthropogenic deforestation in the data compared to the prescribed land use in the models. We show that land use, and not climate, is the main driver of the Holocene forest decline. The model–data agreement depends on the model tuning, challenging model–data comparisons.
Jooyeop Lee, Martin Claussen, Jeongwon Kim, Je-Woo Hong, In-Sun Song, and Jinkyu Hong
Clim. Past, 18, 313–326, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-313-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-313-2022, 2022
Short summary
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.
Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, Stephan J. Lorenz, Michael Sigl, Matthew Toohey, and Ulrike Herzschuh
Clim. Past, 17, 2481–2513, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2481-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2481-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, Stephan J. Lorenz, and Timothy Shanahan
Clim. Past, 16, 117–140, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-117-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-117-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We analyse the end of the African humid period (AHP) in a transient Holocene simulation performed with the comprehensive Earth system model MPI-ESM1.2. The model reproduces the time-transgressive end of the AHP evident in proxy data and indicates that changes in moisture can be attributed to the retreat of the summer monsoon and to changes in the extratropical troughs. The spatially varying impact of these systems imposes regionally different responses to the Holocene insolation change.
Anne Dallmeyer, Martin Claussen, and Victor Brovkin
Clim. Past, 15, 335–366, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-335-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-335-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
A simple but powerful method for the biomisation of plant functional type distributions is introduced and tested for six different dynamic global vegetation models based on pre-industrial and palaeo-simulations. The method facilitates the direct comparison between vegetation distributions simulated by different Earth system models and between model results and the pollen-based biome reconstructions. It is therefore a powerful tool for the evaluation of Earth system models.
S. Kloster, T. Brücher, V. Brovkin, and S. Wilkenskjeld
Clim. Past, 11, 781–788, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-781-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-781-2015, 2015
R. Rachmayani, M. Prange, and M. Schulz
Clim. Past, 11, 175–185, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-175-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-175-2015, 2015
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The role of vegetation-precipitation feedbacks in modifying the North African rainfall response to enhanced early to mid-Holocene summer insolation is analysed using the climate-vegetation model CCSM3-DGVM. Dynamic vegetation amplifies the positive early to mid-Holocene summer precipitation anomaly by ca. 20% in the Sahara-Sahel region. The primary vegetation feedback operates through surface latent heat flux anomalies by canopy evapotranspiration and their effect on the African easterly jet.
T. Brücher, V. Brovkin, S. Kloster, J. R. Marlon, and M. J. Power
Clim. Past, 10, 811–824, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-811-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-811-2014, 2014
O. Flores, E. S. Gritti, and D. Jolly
Clim. Past, 5, 431–440, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-5-431-2009, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-5-431-2009, 2009
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Short summary
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.
Increasing the vegetation cover over mid-Holcocene North Africa expands the West African monsoon...
