Intensified Arctic warming under greenhouse warming by vegetation–atmosphere–sea ice interaction
Observations and modeling studies indicate that enhanced vegetation activities over high latitudes under an elevated CO _2 concentration accelerate surface warming by reducing the surface albedo. In this study, we suggest that vegetation-atmosphere-sea ice interactions over high latitudes can induce...
| Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/9/094007 https://doaj.org/article/d9d4576e134a44c3811e3a17f950b765 |
| Summary: | Observations and modeling studies indicate that enhanced vegetation activities over high latitudes under an elevated CO _2 concentration accelerate surface warming by reducing the surface albedo. In this study, we suggest that vegetation-atmosphere-sea ice interactions over high latitudes can induce an additional amplification of Arctic warming. Our hypothesis is tested by a series of coupled vegetation-climate model simulations under 2xCO _2 environments. The increased vegetation activities over high latitudes under a 2xCO _2 condition induce additional surface warming and turbulent heat fluxes to the atmosphere, which are transported to the Arctic through the atmosphere. This causes additional sea-ice melting and upper-ocean warming during the warm season. As a consequence, the Arctic and high-latitude warming is greatly amplified in the following winter and spring, which further promotes vegetation activities the following year. We conclude that the vegetation-atmosphere-sea ice interaction gives rise to additional positive feedback of the Arctic amplification. |
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