A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications
Increasing concern about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems is prompting ecologists and ecosystem managers to seek reliable projections of physical drivers of change. The use of global climate models in ecology is growing, although drawing ecologically meaningful conclusions can be problema...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:516716 2023-05-15T18:16:48+02:00 A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications Cavanagh, Rachel D. Murphy, Eugene J. Bracegirdle, Thomas J. Turner, John Knowland, Cheryl A. Corney, Stuart P. Smith, Walker O. Waluda, Claire M. Johnston, Nadine M. Bellerby, Richard G.J. Constable, Andrew J. Costa, Daniel p. Hofmann, Eileen E. Jackson, Jennifer A. Staniland, Iain J. Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter Xavier, Jose C. 2017-09-26 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516716/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516716/1/fmars-04-00308.pdf https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308/full en eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516716/1/fmars-04-00308.pdf Cavanagh, Rachel D. orcid:0000-0002-2474-9716 Murphy, Eugene J. orcid:0000-0002-7369-9196 Bracegirdle, Thomas J. orcid:0000-0002-8868-4739 Turner, John orcid:0000-0002-6111-5122 Knowland, Cheryl A.; Corney, Stuart P.; Smith, Walker O.; Waluda, Claire M. orcid:0000-0003-3517-5233 Johnston, Nadine M.; Bellerby, Richard G.J.; Constable, Andrew J.; Costa, Daniel p.; Hofmann, Eileen E.; Jackson, Jennifer A. orcid:0000-0003-4158-1924 Staniland, Iain J. orcid:0000-0003-2736-9134 Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter; Xavier, Jose C. orcid:0000-0002-9621-6660 . 2017 A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications. Frontiers in Marine Science, 4, 508. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2017 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 2023-02-04T19:44:47Z Increasing concern about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems is prompting ecologists and ecosystem managers to seek reliable projections of physical drivers of change. The use of global climate models in ecology is growing, although drawing ecologically meaningful conclusions can be problematic. The expertise required to access and interpret output from climate and earth system models is hampering progress in utilizing them most effectively to determine the wider implications of climate change. To address this issue, we present a joint approach between climate scientists and ecologists that explores key challenges and opportunities for progress. As an exemplar, our focus is the Southern Ocean, notable for significant change with global implications, and on sea ice, given its crucial role in this dynamic ecosystem. We combined perspectives to evaluate the representation of sea ice in global climate models. With an emphasis on ecologically-relevant criteria (sea ice extent and seasonality) we selected a subset of eight models that reliably reproduce extant sea ice distributions. While the model subset shows a similar mean change to the full ensemble in sea ice extent (approximately 50% decline in winter and 30% decline in summer), there is a marked reduction in the range. This improved the precision of projected future sea ice distributions by approximately one third, and means they are more amenable to ecological interpretation. We conclude that careful multidisciplinary evaluation of climate models, in conjunction with ongoing modeling advances, should form an integral part of utilizing model output. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice Southern Ocean Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Southern Ocean Frontiers in Marine Science 4 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Increasing concern about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems is prompting ecologists and ecosystem managers to seek reliable projections of physical drivers of change. The use of global climate models in ecology is growing, although drawing ecologically meaningful conclusions can be problematic. The expertise required to access and interpret output from climate and earth system models is hampering progress in utilizing them most effectively to determine the wider implications of climate change. To address this issue, we present a joint approach between climate scientists and ecologists that explores key challenges and opportunities for progress. As an exemplar, our focus is the Southern Ocean, notable for significant change with global implications, and on sea ice, given its crucial role in this dynamic ecosystem. We combined perspectives to evaluate the representation of sea ice in global climate models. With an emphasis on ecologically-relevant criteria (sea ice extent and seasonality) we selected a subset of eight models that reliably reproduce extant sea ice distributions. While the model subset shows a similar mean change to the full ensemble in sea ice extent (approximately 50% decline in winter and 30% decline in summer), there is a marked reduction in the range. This improved the precision of projected future sea ice distributions by approximately one third, and means they are more amenable to ecological interpretation. We conclude that careful multidisciplinary evaluation of climate models, in conjunction with ongoing modeling advances, should form an integral part of utilizing model output. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cavanagh, Rachel D. Murphy, Eugene J. Bracegirdle, Thomas J. Turner, John Knowland, Cheryl A. Corney, Stuart P. Smith, Walker O. Waluda, Claire M. Johnston, Nadine M. Bellerby, Richard G.J. Constable, Andrew J. Costa, Daniel p. Hofmann, Eileen E. Jackson, Jennifer A. Staniland, Iain J. Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter Xavier, Jose C. |
spellingShingle |
Cavanagh, Rachel D. Murphy, Eugene J. Bracegirdle, Thomas J. Turner, John Knowland, Cheryl A. Corney, Stuart P. Smith, Walker O. Waluda, Claire M. Johnston, Nadine M. Bellerby, Richard G.J. Constable, Andrew J. Costa, Daniel p. Hofmann, Eileen E. Jackson, Jennifer A. Staniland, Iain J. Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter Xavier, Jose C. A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications |
author_facet |
Cavanagh, Rachel D. Murphy, Eugene J. Bracegirdle, Thomas J. Turner, John Knowland, Cheryl A. Corney, Stuart P. Smith, Walker O. Waluda, Claire M. Johnston, Nadine M. Bellerby, Richard G.J. Constable, Andrew J. Costa, Daniel p. Hofmann, Eileen E. Jackson, Jennifer A. Staniland, Iain J. Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter Xavier, Jose C. |
author_sort |
Cavanagh, Rachel D. |
title |
A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications |
title_short |
A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications |
title_full |
A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications |
title_fullStr |
A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications |
title_full_unstemmed |
A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications |
title_sort |
synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516716/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516716/1/fmars-04-00308.pdf https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308/full |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Sea ice Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Sea ice Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516716/1/fmars-04-00308.pdf Cavanagh, Rachel D. orcid:0000-0002-2474-9716 Murphy, Eugene J. orcid:0000-0002-7369-9196 Bracegirdle, Thomas J. orcid:0000-0002-8868-4739 Turner, John orcid:0000-0002-6111-5122 Knowland, Cheryl A.; Corney, Stuart P.; Smith, Walker O.; Waluda, Claire M. orcid:0000-0003-3517-5233 Johnston, Nadine M.; Bellerby, Richard G.J.; Constable, Andrew J.; Costa, Daniel p.; Hofmann, Eileen E.; Jackson, Jennifer A. orcid:0000-0003-4158-1924 Staniland, Iain J. orcid:0000-0003-2736-9134 Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter; Xavier, Jose C. orcid:0000-0002-9621-6660 . 2017 A synergistic approach for evaluating climate model output for ecological applications. Frontiers in Marine Science, 4, 508. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
4 |
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1766190685323526144 |