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Now showing 1 - 10 of 1257
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    Simulation of the future sea level contribution of Greenland with a new glacial system model
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2018) Calov, Reinhard; Beyer, Sebastian; Greve, Ralf; Beckmann, Johanna; Willeit, Matteo; Kleiner, Thomas; Rückamp, Martin; Humbert, Angelika; Ganopolski, Andrey
    We introduce the coupled model of the Greenland glacial system IGLOO 1.0, including the polythermal ice sheet model SICOPOLIS (version 3.3) with hybrid dynamics, the model of basal hydrology HYDRO and a parameterization of submarine melt for marine-terminated outlet glaciers. The aim of this glacial system model is to gain a better understanding of the processes important for the future contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to sea level rise under future climate change scenarios. The ice sheet is initialized via a relaxation towards observed surface elevation, imposing the palaeo-surface temperature over the last glacial cycle. As a present-day reference, we use the 1961-1990 standard climatology derived from simulations of the regional atmosphere model MAR with ERA reanalysis boundary conditions. For the palaeo-part of the spin-up, we add the temperature anomaly derived from the GRIP ice core to the years 1961-1990 average surface temperature field. For our projections, we apply surface temperature and surface mass balance anomalies derived from RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios created by MAR with boundary conditions from simulations with three CMIP5 models. The hybrid ice sheet model is fully coupled with the model of basal hydrology. With this model and the MAR scenarios, we perform simulations to estimate the contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to future sea level rise until the end of the 21st and 23rd centuries. Further on, the impact of elevation-surface mass balance feedback, introduced via the MAR data, on future sea level rise is inspected. In our projections, we found the Greenland ice sheet to contribute between 1.9 and 13.0 cm to global sea level rise until the year 2100 and between 3.5 and 76.4 cm until the year 2300, including our simulated additional sea level rise due to elevation-surface mass balance feedback. Translated into additional sea level rise, the strength of this feedback in the year 2100 varies from 0.4 to 1.7 cm, and in the year 2300 it ranges from 1.7 to 21.8 cm. Additionally, taking the Helheim and Store glaciers as examples, we investigate the role of ocean warming and surface runoff change for the melting of outlet glaciers. It shows that ocean temperature and subglacial discharge are about equally important for the melting of the examined outlet glaciers.
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    Inferring causation from time series in Earth system sciences
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2019) Runge, Jakob; Bathiany, Sebastian; Bollt, Erik; Camps-Valls, Gustau; Coumou, Dim; Deyle, Ethan; Glymour, Clark; Kretschmer, Marlene; Mahecha, Miguel D.; Muñoz-Marí, Jordi; van Nes, Egbert H.; Peters, Jonas; Quax, Rick; Reichstein, Markus; Scheffer, Marten; Schölkopf, Bernhard; Spirtes, Peter; Sugihara, George; Sun, Jie; Zhang, Kun; Zscheischler, Jakob
    The heart of the scientific enterprise is a rational effort to understand the causes behind the phenomena we observe. In large-scale complex dynamical systems such as the Earth system, real experiments are rarely feasible. However, a rapidly increasing amount of observational and simulated data opens up the use of novel data-driven causal methods beyond the commonly adopted correlation techniques. Here, we give an overview of causal inference frameworks and identify promising generic application cases common in Earth system sciences and beyond. We discuss challenges and initiate the benchmark platform causeme.net to close the gap between method users and developers. © 2019, The Author(s).
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    Thinning Can Reduce Losses in Carbon Use Efficiency and Carbon Stocks in Managed Forests Under Warmer Climate
    (Fort Collins, Colo. : [Verlag nicht ermittelbar], 2018) Collalti, Alessio; Trotta, Carlo; Keenan, Trevor F.; Ibrom, Andreas; Bond‐Lamberty, Ben; Grote, Ruediger; Vicca, Sara; Reyer, Christopher P. O.; Migliavacca, Mirco; Veroustraete, Frank; Anav, Alessandro; Campioli, Matteo; Scoccimarro, Enrico; Šigut, Ladislav; Grieco, Elisa; Cescatti, Alessandro; Matteucci, Giorgio
    Forest carbon use efficiency (CUE, the ratio of net to gross primary productivity) represents the fraction of photosynthesis that is not used for plant respiration. Although important, it is often neglected in climate change impact analyses. Here we assess the potential impact of thinning on projected carbon cycle dynamics and implications for forest CUE and its components (i.e., gross and net primary productivity and plant respiration), as well as on forest biomass production. Using a detailed process-based forest ecosystem model forced by climate outputs of five Earth System Models under four representative climate scenarios, we investigate the sensitivity of the projected future changes in the autotrophic carbon budget of three representative European forests. We focus on changes in CUE and carbon stocks as a result of warming, rising atmospheric CO2 concentration, and forest thinning. Results show that autotrophic carbon sequestration decreases with forest development, and the decrease is faster with warming and in unthinned forests. This suggests that the combined impacts of climate change and changing CO2 concentrations lead the forests to grow faster, mature earlier, and also die younger. In addition, we show that under future climate conditions, forest thinning could mitigate the decrease in CUE, increase carbon allocation into more recalcitrant woody pools, and reduce physiological-climate-induced mortality risks. Altogether, our results show that thinning can improve the efficacy of forest-based mitigation strategies and should be carefully considered within a portfolio of mitigation options.
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    Change points of global temperature
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2015) Cahill, Niamh; Rahmstorf, Stefan; Parnell, Andrew C.
    We aim to address the question of whether or not there is a significant recent 'hiatus', 'pause' or 'slowdown' of global temperature rise. Using a statistical technique known as change point (CP) analysis we identify the changes in four global temperature records and estimate the rates of temperature rise before and after these changes occur. For each record the results indicate that three CPs are enough to accurately capture the variability in the data with no evidence of any detectable change in the global warming trend since ∼1970. We conclude that the term 'hiatus' or 'pause' cannot be statistically justified.
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    Simulating second-generation herbaceous bioenergy crop yield using the global hydrological model H08 (v.bio1)
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2020) Ai, Zhipin; Hanasaki, Naota; Heck, Vera; Hasegawa, Tomoko; Fujimori, Shinichiro
    Large-scale deployment of bioenergy plantations would have adverse effects on water resources. There is an increasing need to ensure the appropriate inclusion of the bioenergy crops in global hydrological models. Here, through parameter calibration and algorithm improvement, we enhanced the global hydrological model H08 to simulate the bioenergy yield from two dedicated herbaceous bioenergy crops: Miscanthus and switchgrass. Site-specific evaluations showed that the enhanced model had the ability to simulate yield for both Miscanthus and switchgrass, with the calibrated yields being well within the ranges of the observed yield. Independent country-specific evaluations further confirmed the performance of the H08 (v.bio1). Using this improved model, we found that unconstrained irrigation more than doubled the yield under rainfed condition, but reduced the water use efficiency (WUE) by 32 % globally. With irrigation, the yield in dry climate zones can exceed the rainfed yields in tropical climate zones. Nevertheless, due to the low water consumption in tropical areas, the highest WUE was found in tropical climate zones, regardless of whether the crop was irrigated. Our enhanced model provides a new tool for the future assessment of bioenergy–water tradeoffs.
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    Path integral solutions for n-dimensional stochastic differential equations under α-stable Lévy excitation
    (College Park, Md : [Verlag nicht ermittelbar], 2023) Zan, Wanrong; Xu, Yong; Kurths, Jürgen
    In this paper, the path integral solutions for a general n-dimensional stochastic differential equations (SDEs) with α-stable Lévy noise are derived and verified. Firstly, the governing equations for the solutions of n-dimensional SDEs under the excitation of α-stable Lévy noise are obtained through the characteristic function of stochastic processes. Then, the short-time transition probability density function of the path integral solution is derived based on the Chapman-Kolmogorov-Smoluchowski (CKS) equation and the characteristic function, and its correctness is demonstrated by proving that it satisfies the governing equation of the solution of the SDE, which is also called the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation. Besides, illustrative examples are numerically considered for highlighting the feasibility of the proposed path integral method, and the pertinent Monte Carlo solution is also calculated to show its correctness and effectiveness.
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    Climate-driven interannual variability of water scarcity in food production potential: A global analysis
    (Göttingen : Copernicus GmbH, 2014) Kummu, M.; Gerten, D.; Heinke, J.; Konzmann, M.; Varis, O.
    Interannual climatic and hydrologic variability has been substantial during the past decades in many regions. While climate variability and its impacts on precipitation and soil moisture have been studied intensively, less is known on subsequent implications for global food production. In this paper we quantify effects of hydroclimatic variability on global "green" and "blue" water availability and demand in global agriculture, and thus complement former studies that have focused merely on long-term averages. Moreover, we assess some options to overcome chronic or sporadic water scarcity. The analysis is based on historical climate forcing data sets over the period 1977-2006, while demography, diet composition and land use are fixed to reference conditions (year 2000). In doing so, we isolate the effect of interannual hydroclimatic variability from other factors that drive food production. We analyse the potential of food production units (FPUs) to produce a reference diet for their inhabitants (3000 kcal cap-1 day -1, with 80% vegetal food and 20% animal products). We applied the LPJmL vegetation and hydrology model to calculate the variation in green-blue water availability and the water requirements to produce that very diet. An FPU was considered water scarce if its water availability was not sufficient to produce the diet (i.e. assuming food self-sufficiency to estimate dependency on trade from elsewhere). We found that 24% of the world's population lives in chronically water-scarce FPUs (i.e. water is scarce every year), while an additional 19% live under occasional water scarcity (water is scarce in some years). Among these 2.6 billion people altogether, 55% would have to rely on international trade to reach the reference diet, while for 24% domestic trade would be enough. For the remaining 21% of the population exposed to some degree of water scarcity, local food storage and/or intermittent trade would be enough to secure the reference diet over the occasional dry years.
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    REMIND2.1: transformation and innovation dynamics of the energy-economic system within climate and sustainability limits
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2021) Baumstark, Lavinia; Bauer, Nico; Benke, Falk; Bertram, Christoph; Bi, Stephen; Gong, Chen Chris; Dietrich, Jan Philipp; Dirnaichner, Alois; Giannousakis, Anastasis; Hilaire, Jerome; Klein, David; Koch, Johannes; Leimbach, Marian; Levesque, Antoine; Madeddu, Silvia; Malik, Aman; Merfort, Anne; Merfort, Leon; Odenweller, Adrian; Pehl, Michaja; Pietzcker, Robert C.; Piontek, Franziska; Rauner, Sebastian; Rodrigues, Renato; Rottoli, Marianna; Schreyer, Felix; Schultes, Anselm; Soergel, Bjoern; Soergel, Dominika; Strefler, Jessica; Ueckerdt, Falko; Kriegler, Elmar; Luderer, Gunnar
    This paper presents the new and now open-source version 2.1 of the REgional Model of INvestments and Development (REMIND). REMIND, as an integrated assessment model (IAM), provides an integrated view of the global energy–economy–emissions system and explores self-consistent transformation pathways. It describes a broad range of possible futures and their relation to technical and socio-economic developments as well as policy choices. REMIND is a multiregional model incorporating the economy and a detailed representation of the energy sector implemented in the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). It uses non-linear optimization to derive welfare-optimal regional transformation pathways of the energy-economic system subject to climate and sustainability constraints for the time horizon from 2005 to 2100. The resulting solution corresponds to the decentralized market outcome under the assumptions of perfect foresight of agents and internalization of external effects. REMIND enables the analyses of technology options and policy approaches for climate change mitigation with particular strength in representing the scale-up of new technologies, including renewables and their integration in power markets. The REMIND code is organized into modules that gather code relevant for specific topics. Interaction between different modules is made explicit via clearly defined sets of input and output variables. Each module can be represented by different realizations, enabling flexible configuration and extension. The spatial resolution of REMIND is flexible and depends on the resolution of the input data. Thus, the framework can be used for a variety of applications in a customized form, balancing requirements for detail and overall runtime and complexity.
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    Understanding the transgression of global and regional freshwater planetary boundaries
    (London : Royal Society, 2022) Pastor, A.V.; Biemans, H.; Franssen, W.; Gerten, D.; Hoff, H.; Ludwig, F.; Kabat, P.
    Freshwater ecosystems have been degraded due to intensive freshwater abstraction. Therefore, environmental flow requirements (EFRs) methods have been proposed to maintain healthy rivers and/or restore river flows. In this study, we used the Variable Monthly Flow (VMF) method to calculate the transgression of freshwater planetary boundaries: (1) natural deficits in which flow does not meet EFRs due to climate variability, and (2) anthropogenic deficits caused by water abstractions. The novelty is that we calculated spatially and cumulative monthly water deficits by river types including the frequency, magnitude and causes of environmental flow (EF) deficits (climatic and/or anthropogenic). Water deficit was found to be a regional rather than a global concern (less than 5% of total discharge). The results show that, from 1960 to 2000, perennial rivers with low flow alteration, such as the Amazon, had an EF deficit of 2–12% of the total discharge, and that the climate deficit was responsible for up to 75% of the total deficit. In rivers with high seasonality and high water abstractions such as the Indus, the total deficit represents up to 130% of its total discharge, 85% of which is due to withdrawals. We highlight the need to allocate water to humans and ecosystems sustainably. This article is part of the Royal Society Science+ meeting issue ‘Drought risk in the Anthropocene’.
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    When optimization for governing human-environment tipping elements is neither sustainable nor safe
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2018) Barfuss, W.; Donges, J.F.; Lade, S.J.; Kurths, J.
    Optimizing economic welfare in environmental governance has been criticized for delivering short-term gains at the expense of long-term environmental degradation. Different from economic optimization, the concepts of sustainability and the more recent safe operating space have been used to derive policies in environmental governance. However, a formal comparison between these three policy paradigms is still missing, leaving policy makers uncertain which paradigm to apply. Here, we develop a better understanding of their interrelationships, using a stylized model of human-environment tipping elements. We find that no paradigm guarantees fulfilling requirements imposed by another paradigm and derive simple heuristics for the conditions under which these trade-offs occur. We show that the absence of such a master paradigm is of special relevance for governing real-world tipping systems such as climate, fisheries, and farming, which may reside in a parameter regime where economic optimization is neither sustainable nor safe.