Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface
Feedbacks, or internal interactions, play a crucial role in the climate system. Negative feedback will reduce the impact of an external perturbation, a positive feedback will amplify the effect and could lead to an unstable system. Many of the feedbacks found in the climate system are positive; thus...
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ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/566635 2024-02-04T09:58:00+01:00 Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface Harding, Richard Kuhry, Peter Christensen, Torben R. Sykes, Martin T. Dankers, Rutger Van der Linden, Sandra 2002 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/climate-feedbacks-at-the-tundra-taiga-interface en eng https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/climate-feedbacks-at-the-tundra-taiga-interface info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Wageningen University & Research Ambio 31 (2002) SPEC. ISS. 12 ISSN: 0044-7447 Life Science info:eu-repo/semantics/article Article/Letter to editor info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2002 ftunivwagenin 2024-01-10T23:27:21Z Feedbacks, or internal interactions, play a crucial role in the climate system. Negative feedback will reduce the impact of an external perturbation, a positive feedback will amplify the effect and could lead to an unstable system. Many of the feedbacks found in the climate system are positive; thus, for example, increasing CO2 levels will increase temperature, reduce the snow cover, increase the absorption of radiation and hence increase temperature further. The most obvious feedbacks, such as the snow example quoted above, are already included within our models of the climate and earth system. Others, such as the impact of increasing forest cover due to global warming, are only just being included. Others, such as, the impact of global warming on the northern peatlands and the impact of freshwater flows on the Arctic Ocean are not yet considered. The contrast in surface characteristics between low tundra vegetation to high taiga forest is considerable. The contrast is greatest in the winter, when the tundra is snow covered but the trees of the taiga protrude through the snow pack, and is probably the greatest contrast found on the land surface anywhere. This variation causes massive changes in the energy fluxes at the surface and hence the temperature conditions on the ground and within the atmosphere. There will be large resultant changes in the vegetation development, the carbon fluxes, the permafrost and the hydrology. The Arctic is already experiencing change and it is essential for us to understand the basic processes, and how these interact, to be confident of our predictions of environmental change in the future. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming permafrost taiga Tundra Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library Arctic Arctic Ocean |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwagenin |
language |
English |
topic |
Life Science |
spellingShingle |
Life Science Harding, Richard Kuhry, Peter Christensen, Torben R. Sykes, Martin T. Dankers, Rutger Van der Linden, Sandra Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface |
topic_facet |
Life Science |
description |
Feedbacks, or internal interactions, play a crucial role in the climate system. Negative feedback will reduce the impact of an external perturbation, a positive feedback will amplify the effect and could lead to an unstable system. Many of the feedbacks found in the climate system are positive; thus, for example, increasing CO2 levels will increase temperature, reduce the snow cover, increase the absorption of radiation and hence increase temperature further. The most obvious feedbacks, such as the snow example quoted above, are already included within our models of the climate and earth system. Others, such as the impact of increasing forest cover due to global warming, are only just being included. Others, such as, the impact of global warming on the northern peatlands and the impact of freshwater flows on the Arctic Ocean are not yet considered. The contrast in surface characteristics between low tundra vegetation to high taiga forest is considerable. The contrast is greatest in the winter, when the tundra is snow covered but the trees of the taiga protrude through the snow pack, and is probably the greatest contrast found on the land surface anywhere. This variation causes massive changes in the energy fluxes at the surface and hence the temperature conditions on the ground and within the atmosphere. There will be large resultant changes in the vegetation development, the carbon fluxes, the permafrost and the hydrology. The Arctic is already experiencing change and it is essential for us to understand the basic processes, and how these interact, to be confident of our predictions of environmental change in the future. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Harding, Richard Kuhry, Peter Christensen, Torben R. Sykes, Martin T. Dankers, Rutger Van der Linden, Sandra |
author_facet |
Harding, Richard Kuhry, Peter Christensen, Torben R. Sykes, Martin T. Dankers, Rutger Van der Linden, Sandra |
author_sort |
Harding, Richard |
title |
Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface |
title_short |
Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface |
title_full |
Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface |
title_fullStr |
Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface |
title_sort |
climate feedbacks at the tundra-taiga interface |
publishDate |
2002 |
url |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/climate-feedbacks-at-the-tundra-taiga-interface |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming permafrost taiga Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming permafrost taiga Tundra |
op_source |
Ambio 31 (2002) SPEC. ISS. 12 ISSN: 0044-7447 |
op_relation |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/climate-feedbacks-at-the-tundra-taiga-interface |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Wageningen University & Research |
_version_ |
1789962336147079168 |