Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 9 December 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5754, pp. 1674 - 1678
DOI: 10.1126/science.1118160
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

The Importance of Land-Cover Change in Simulating Future Climates

Johannes J. Feddema,1* Keith W. Oleson,2 Gordon B. Bonan,2 Linda O. Mearns,2 Lawrence E. Buja,2 Gerald A. Meehl,2 Warren M. Washington2

Adding the effects of changes in land cover to the A2 and B1 transient climate simulations described in the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change leads to significantly different regional climates in 2100 as compared with climates resulting from atmospheric SRES forcings alone. Agricultural expansion in the A2 scenario results in significant additional warming over the Amazon and cooling of the upper air column and nearby oceans. These and other influences on the Hadley and monsoon circulations affect extratropical climates. Agricultural expansion in the mid-latitudes produces cooling and decreases in the mean daily temperature range over many areas. The A2 scenario results in more significant change, often of opposite sign, than does the B1 scenario.

1 Department of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
2 National Center for Atmospheric Research, Post Office Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: feddema{at}ku.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests.
G. B. Bonan (2008)
Science 320, 1444-1449
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Empirical evidence for a recent slowdown in irrigation-induced cooling.
C. Bonfils and D. Lobell (2007)
PNAS 104, 13582-13587
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Arid geomorphology: investigating past, present and future changes.
S. Tooth (2007)
Progress in Physical Geography 31, 319-335
   PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)