The climate induced variation of the continental biosphere: A model simulation of the last glacial maximum

peer reviewed A simplified three-dimensional global climate model was used to simulate the surface temperature and precipitation distributions for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), 18000 years ago. These fields were applied to a bioclimatic scheme which parameterizes the distribution of eight vegetati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Friedlingstein, P., Delire, C., Müler, J. F., Gérard, Jean-Claude
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union 1992
Subjects:
Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
Information Related to Geologic Time: Cenozoic
Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology
Physical
chemical
mathematical & earth Sciences
Space science
astronomy & astrophysics
Physique
chimie
mathématiques & sciences de la terre
Aérospatiale
astronomie & astrophysique
Tundra
Online Access:https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/27402
https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/27402/1/Friedlingstein_et_al-1992-Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1029/92GL00546
Description
Summary:peer reviewed A simplified three-dimensional global climate model was used to simulate the surface temperature and precipitation distributions for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), 18000 years ago. These fields were applied to a bioclimatic scheme which parameterizes the distribution of eight vegetation types as a function of biotemperature and annual precipitation. The model predicts a decrease, for LGM compared to present, in forested area balanced by an increase in desert and tundra extent, in agreement with a reconstruction of the distribution of vegetation based on paleodata. However, the estimated biospheric carbon content (phytomass and soil carbon) at LGM is less reduced than in the reconstructed one. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.

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