An increase in the biogenic aerosol concentration as a contributing factor to the recent wetting trend in Tibetan Plateau

• Main Authors: Fang, Keyan, Makkonen, Risto, Guo, Zhengtang, Zhao, Yan, Seppä, Heikki
• Other Authors: Department of Physics, Department of Geosciences and Geography
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2016
• Subjects: CLIMATE-CHANGE; MODEL; DROUGHT; MILLENNIUM; DYNAMICS; MOISTURE; CHINA; 114 Physical sciences; 1172 Environmental sciences; Arctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/162428

A significant wetting trend since the early 1980s in Tibetan Plateau (TP) is most conspicuous in central and eastern Asia as shown in the instrumental data and the long-term moisture sensitive tree rings. We found that anomalies in the large-scale oceanic and atmospheric circulations do not play a significant role on the wetting trend in TP. Meanwhile, the weak correlation between local temperature and precipitation suggests that the temperature-induced enhancement of the local water cycle cannot fully explain the wetting trend either. This may indicate the presence of nonlinear processes between local temperature and precipitation. We hypothesize that the current warming may enhance the emissions of the biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) that can increase the secondary organic aerosols (SOA), contributing to the precipitation increase. The wetting trend can increase the vegetation cover and cause a positive feedback on the BVOC emissions. Our simulations indicate a significant contribution of increased BVOC emissions to the regional organic aerosol mass and the simulated increase in BVOC emissions is significantly correlated with the wetting trend in TP. Peer reviewed