Climate change and Arctic ecosystems: 2. Modeling, paleodata-model comparisons, and future projections

Large variations in the composition, structure, and function of Arctic ecosystems are determined by climatic gradients, especially of growing-season warmth, soil moisture, and snow cover. A unified circumpolar classification recognizing five types of tundra was developed. The geographic distributions of vegetation types north of 55degreesN, including the position of the forest limit and the distributions of the tundra types, could be predicted from climatology using a small set of plant functional types embedded in the biogeochemistry-biogeography model BIOME4. Several palaeoclimate simulations for the last glacial maximum (LGM) and mid-Holocene were used to explore the possibility of simulating past vegetation patterns, which are independently known based on pollen data. The broad outlines of observed changes in vegetation were captured. LGM simulations showed the major reduction of forest, the great extension of graminoid and forb tundra, and the restriction of low- and high-shrub tundra (although not all models produced sufficiently dry conditions to mimic the full observed change). Mid-Holocene simulations reproduced the contrast between northward forest extension in western and central Siberia and stability of the forest limit in Beringia. Projection of the effect of a continued exponential increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, based on a transient ocean-atmosphere simulation including sulfate aerosol effects, suggests a potential for larger changes in Arctic ecosystems during the 21st century than have occurred between mid-Holocene and present. Simulated physiological effects of the CO2 increase (to >700 ppm) at high latitudes were slight compared with the effects of the change in climate.

Geophysical Applications of Vegetation Modeling

Jed Oliver Kaplan

This thesis describes the development and selected applications of a global vegetation model, BIOME4. The model is applied to problems in high-latitude vegetation distribution and climate, trace gas production, and isotope biogeochemistry. It demonstrates how a modeling approach, based on principles of plant physiology and ecology, can be applied to interdisciplinary problems that cannot be adequately addressed by direct observations or experiments. The work is relevant to understanding the potential effects of climate change on the terrestrial biosphere and the feedbacks between the biosphere and climate. BIOME4 simulates the distribution of 15 high-latitude biomes, including five tundra vegetation types, for the present day using observed climate, and the LGM, mid-Holocene, and a “greenhouse” scenario for 2100 using the output of GCMs. In the LGM simulations, the high-latitudes show a marked increase in the area of graminoid and forb tundra, which is also the predominant feature in the paleodata. This vegetation has no widespread modern analog; it was favored by the cold, dry climate, and supported large mammoth populations. Mid-Holocene simulations indicate a modest, asymmetrical northward advance of the Arctic treeline compared to present, with greatest extension in central Siberia (up to 300 km), and little to no change in the Western Hemisphere. This result is in good agreement with pollen and megafossil data from the same period. Differential warming of the continents in response to increased high-latitude solar radiation is hypothesized to account for the asymmetry. Vegetation changes in the 2100 projection, which assumes a continued exponential increase in atmospheric GHG concentrations, are more radical than those simulated for the mid-Holocene. The year-round forcing due to GHGs increases both summertime and annual temperatures in the high latitudes by up to double the mid-Holocene anomaly. However the potential treeline advances and biome shifts in our simulation are unlikely to be realized within 100 years, because of the time required for migration and establishment of new vegetation types. Potential natural wetland area for the present day was simulated by BIOME4 as 11.0x106km2. This value is higher than other estimates but includes small (

Lund University2001

Climate change and Arctic ecosystems: 1. Vegetation changes north of 55 degrees N between the last glacial maximum, mid-Holocene, and present

Jed Oliver Kaplan, Verena Wolf

A unified scheme to assign pollen samples to vegetation types was used to reconstruct vegetation patterns north of 55°N at the last glacial maximum (LGM) and mid-Holocene (6000 years B.P.). The pollen data set assembled for this purpose represents a comprehensive compilation based on the work of many projects and research groups. Five tundra types (cushion forb tundra, graminoid and forb tundra, prostrate dwarf-shrub tundra, erect dwarf-shrub tundra, and low- and high-shrub tundra) were distinguished and mapped on the basis of modern pollen surface samples. The tundra-forest boundary and the distributions of boreal and temperate forest types today were realistically reconstructed. During the mid-Holocene the tundra-forest boundary was north of its present position in some regions, but the pattern of this shift was strongly asymmetrical around the pole, with the largest northward shift in central Siberia (∼200 km), little change in Beringia, and a southward shift in Keewatin and Labrador (∼200 km). Low- and high-shrub tundra extended farther north than today. At the LGM, forests were absent from high latitudes. Graminoid and forb tundra abutted on temperate steppe in northwestern Eurasia while prostrate dwarf-shrub, erect dwarf-shrub, and graminoid and forb tundra formed a mosaic in Beringia. Graminoid and forb tundra is restricted today and does not form a large continuous biome, but the pollen data show that it was far more extensive at the LGM, while low- and high-shrub tundra were greatly reduced, illustrating the potential for climate change to dramatically alter the relative areas occupied by different vegetation types.

2003

Pollen-based continental climate reconstructions at 6 and 21 ka: a global synthesis

Basil Andrew Stansfield Davis

Subfossil pollen and plant macrofossil data derived from C-14-dated sediment profiles can provide quantitative information on glacial and interglacial climates. The data allow climate variables related to growing-season warmth, winter cold, and plant-available moisture to be reconstructed. Continental-scale reconstructions have been made for the mid-Holocene (MH, around 6 ka) and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, around 21 ka), allowing comparison with palaeoclimate simulations currently being carried out as part of the fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The synthesis of the available MH and LGM climate reconstructions and their uncertainties, obtained using modern-analogue, regression and model-inversion techniques, is presented for four temperature variables and two moisture variables. Reconstructions of the same variables based on surface-pollen assemblages are shown to be accurate and unbiased. Reconstructed LGM and MH climate anomaly patterns are coherent, consistent between variables, and robust with respect to the choice of technique. They support a conceptual model of the controls of Late Quaternary climate change whereby the first-order effects of orbital variations and greenhouse forcing on the seasonal cycle of temperature are predictably modified by responses of the atmospheric circulation and surface energy balance.

2011

Geophysical Applications of Vegetation Modeling

Jed Oliver Kaplan

Lund University2001