A Coupled Biosphere–Atmosphere Climate Model Suitable for Studies of Climatic Change Due to Land Surface Alterations

Abstract

Abstract A biosphere model based on BATS (Biosphere–Atmosphere Transfer Scheme) is coupled to a primitive equation global statistical–dynamical model in order to study the climatic impact due to land surface alterations. The fraction of the earth’s surface covered by each vegetation type according to BATS is obtained for each latitude belt. In the control experiment, the mean annual zonally averaged climate is well simulated when compared with observations. Deforestation and desertification experiments are performed. In the deforestation experiment, the evergreen broadleaf tree in the Amazonian region is substituted by short grass; in the desertification experiment the semidesert, and the tall grass and deciduous shrubs are substituted by desert and semidesert in the African continent, respectively. The results show that in both the experiments there is a reduction in evapotranspiration and precipitation in the perturbed region and an increase in the soil surface temperature, the temperature of the foliag...