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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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108190 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 |
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ftunivcoimbra:oai:estudogeral.uc.pt:10316/108190 2023-09-05T13:14:56+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, José C. 2017 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108190 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. 2296-7745 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108190 doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess IPCC CMIP5 climate models Southern Ocean marine ecosystems climate change sea ice info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2017 ftunivcoimbra https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 2023-08-23T00:02:12Z 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 fromclimate and earth systemmodels 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. This paper builds on discussions that took place at a multidisciplinary workshop convened by the Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean programme (ICED) and hosted by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). We thank all the workshop participants. The study (and specifically RC, EM, NJ, JT, CK) was supported by ICED under a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) International ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic British Antarctic Survey Sea ice Southern Ocean Universidade de Coimbra: Estudo Geral Antarctic Southern Ocean Frontiers in Marine Science 4 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Universidade de Coimbra: Estudo Geral |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcoimbra |
language |
English |
topic |
IPCC CMIP5 climate models Southern Ocean marine ecosystems climate change sea ice |
spellingShingle |
IPCC CMIP5 climate models Southern Ocean marine ecosystems climate change sea ice 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, José C. A Synergistic Approach for Evaluating Climate Model Output for Ecological Applications |
topic_facet |
IPCC CMIP5 climate models Southern Ocean marine ecosystems climate change sea ice |
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 fromclimate and earth systemmodels 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. This paper builds on discussions that took place at a multidisciplinary workshop convened by the Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean programme (ICED) and hosted by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). We thank all the workshop participants. The study (and specifically RC, EM, NJ, JT, CK) was supported by ICED under a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) International ... |
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, José C. |
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, José 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://hdl.handle.net/10316/108190 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic British Antarctic Survey Sea ice Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic British Antarctic Survey Sea ice Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
2296-7745 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108190 doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00308 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
4 |
_version_ |
1776196800700481536 |