Global Vegetation and Climate Change due to Future Increases in CO2 as Projected by a Fully Coupled Model with Dynamic Vegetation

Abstract

Transient simulations are presented of future climate and vegetation associated with continued rising levels of CO2. The model is a fully coupled atmosphere?ocean?land?ice model with dynamic vegetation. The impacts of the radiative and physiological forcing of CO2 are diagnosed, along with the role of vegetation feedbacks. While the radiative effect of rising CO2 produces most of the warming, the physiological effect contributes additional warming by weakening the hydrologic cycle through reduced evapotranspiration. Both effects cause drying over tropical rain forests, while the radiative effect enhances Arctic and Indonesian precipitation. A global greening trend is simulated primarily due to the physiological effect, with an increase in photosynthesis and total tree cover associated with enhanced water-use efficiency. In particular, tree cover is enhanced by the physiological effect over moisture-limited regions. Over Amazonia, South Africa, and Australia, the radiative forcing produces soil drying and reduced forest cover. A poleward shift of the boreal forest is simulated as both the radiative and physiological effects enhance vegetation growth in the northern tundra and the radiative effect induces drying and summertime heat stress on the central and southern boreal forest. Vegetation feedbacks substantially impact local temperature trends through changes in albedo and evapotranspiration. The physiological effect increases net biomass across most land areas, while the radiative effect results in an increase over the tundra and decrease over tropical forests and portions of the boreal forest.