The Contribution of Vegetation-Climate Feedback and Resultant Sea Ice Loss to Amplified Arctic Warming During the Mid-Holocene

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Chen, Jie, Zhang, Qiong, Kjellström, Erik, Lu, Zhengyao, Chen, Fahu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022
• Subjects: Climate Research; Arctic warming; mid-Holocene; sea ice; vegetation-climate feedback; Arctic; albedo; Arctic Greening; Climate change; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/77a5a144-49a7-4e29-a4ef-2b45bafff42a; https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098816

Understanding influence of vegetation on past temperature changes in the Arctic region would help isolate uncertainty and build understanding of its broader climate system, with implications for paleoclimate reconstructions and future climate change. Using an Earth system model EC-Earth, we conduct a series of simulations to investigate the impact of vegetation-climate feedback on the Arctic climate during the mid-Holocene. Results show Arctic greening induced by the warming resulting from stronger orbital forcing, further amplifies the Arctic warming. The increased vegetation contributes 0.33°C of Arctic warming and 0.35 × 106 km2 of Arctic sea ice loss. Increased Arctic vegetation leads to reduced land surface albedo and increased evapotranspiration, both of which cause local warming in spring and summer. The resultant sea ice loss causes warming in the following seasons, with atmospheric circulation anomalies further amplifying the warming. Our results highlight the significant contribution of vegetation-climate feedback to Arctic climate under natural conditions.