Title: Using a regional climate model to study landuse landcover changes impacts on nearsurface atmosphere
1Using a regional climate model to study land-use
land-cover changes impacts on near-surface
atmosphere
Adriana Beltrán-Przekurat and Roger A. Pielke
Sr. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic
Sciences and Cooperative Institute for Research
in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO
Detecting the Atmospheric Response to the
Changing Face of the Earth A Focus on
Human-Caused Regional Climate Forcings,
Land-Cover/Land-Use Change, and Data
Monitoring 27-29 August 2007 Boulder, CO
2- Overview of recent and ongoing work that we have
been conducted using the Regional Atmospheric
Modeling System (RAMS) in sensitivity experiments
- Boundary conditions
- Assume past, current and future scenarios
- Use detailed and high resolution vegetation
datasets
- Atmospheric forcing
- Reanalysis (NCEP, ECMWF ERA-40, NARR)
- Model updates
- Convective precipitation scheme (Kain-Fritsch)
- Land-surface scheme, coupled to a plant process
model (General Energy and Mass Transport Model
GEMTM), GEMRAMS
3Changes in land-use increase crop area
From Center for Sustainability and the Global
Environment (SAGE), University of
Wisconsin-Madison
4 change crop type distribution
Soybean
Wheat
5Natural
Afforestation
Current
Southern South America spring-summer simulations
Using a coupled atmospheric-biospheric modeling
system (GEMRAMS) to model the effects of
land-use/land-cover changes on the near-surface
atmosphere. A. Beltrán-Przekurat. Ph.D.
Dissertation. Department of Atmospheric Science,
Colorado State University, 186 pp.
6 increase irrigated area
Irrigated cropland
Non- Irrigated cropland
Potential
India 5-day simulations
The Impact of Agricultural Intensification and
Irrigation on Land-Atmosphere Interactions and
Indian Monsoon Precipitation A Mesoscale
Modeling Perspective. E. M. Douglas, A.
Beltrán-Przekurat, D. Niyogi, R.A. Pielke, Sr.,
and C.J. Vörösmarty. 2007. Accepted in Global and
Planetary Change.
7 increase crop and irrigated-crop area
SGS
From National Land Cover Data (NLCD), courtesy C.
Hiemstra
Short Grass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research,
Colorado, 2-day growing season simulations
Simulating energy, water and carbon fluxes at the
Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research
Site. A. Beltrán-Przekurat, R. A. Pielke Sr., J.
A. Morgan, and I. C. Burke
8Changes in land-cover northern Chihuahuan
Desert, from grasslands in the mid-1800s to
shrublands in the late 1900s
0 10 20 30 40
50 km
Jornada Long Term Ecological Research, New
Mexico, 2-day simulations
The effects of historical vegetation change and
near surface climate in the norhern Chihuahuan
Desert. A. Beltrán-Przekurat, R. A. Pielke Sr.,
D. P.C. Peters, K. A. Snyder and A. Rango. 2007.
In revision.
9GEMRAMS capabilities include
- simulation of plant growth (C3 and C4
photosynthetic pathways, above and belowground
biomass accumulation)
- connection of water (transpiration) and CO2
fluxes through leaf area index (LAI) and canopy
conductance
10(No Transcript)
11Some results of the simulation experiments
Natural
Afforestation
Current
Southern South America spring-summer simulations
Using a coupled atmospheric-biospheric modeling
system (GEMRAMS) to model the effects of
land-use/land-cover changes on the near-surface
atmosphere. A. Beltrán-Przekurat. Ph.D.
Dissertation. Department of Atmospheric Science,
Colorado State University, 186 pp.
12Changes in averaged LAI between Current and
Natural vegetation
October-November
December - January
Southern South America spring-summer simulations
Changes in 2 m temperatures (C) (Dec Jan)
Observed tendency to warmer nights and higher
minimum temperatures
Observed tendency to cooler days and lower
maximum temperatures
13India 5-day simulations
Temperature (C)
Water vapor (g kg-1)
14Jornada Long Term Ecological Research, New
Mexico, 2-day simulations
Simulated differences between current (shrubs)
and past (grasses) vegetation scenarios
Conversion from grass to shrubs cools or warms
the near surface atmosphere depending on the type
of shrubs (i.e biophysical parameters)
15Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research,
Colorado, 2-day simulations
Differences in fluxes between Current and Natural
simulations
16- Final remarks
- Simulated aspects of LULCC were in agreement with
other modeling studies. - Spatial and temporal variability of the changes
are important the sign of the change depended on
the type of conversion and phenology of the
land-cover involved in the changes. - Impact mostly limited to the areas of the
land-cover changes, although some remote areas
were also affected. - These results also demonstrate that vegetation
itself is a weather and climate variable as it
significantly influences temperature, humidity,
and surface fluxes