On the Influence of Vegetation Cover Changes and Vegetation-Runoff Systems on the Simulated Summer Potential Evapotranspiration of Tropical Africa Using RegCM4

Samy A Anwar,Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla,Ossénatou Mamadou,Ismaila Diallo

doi:10.1007/s41748-021-00252-3

Abstract

The community land model version 4.5 provides two ways for treating the vegetation cover changes (a static versus an interactive) and two runoff schemes for tracking the soil moisture changes. In this study, we examined the sensitivity of the simulated boreal summer potential evapotranspiration (PET) to the aforementioned options using a regional climate model. Three different experiments with each one covering 16 years have been performed. The two runoff schemes were designated as SIMTOP (TOP) and variable infiltration capacity (VIC). Both runoff schemes were coupled to the carbon–nitrogen (CN) module, thus the vegetation status can be influenced by soil moisture changes. Results show that vegetation cover changes alone affect considerably the simulated 2-m mean air temperature (T2M). However, they do not affect the global incident solar radiation (RSDS) and PET. Conversely to the vegetation cover changes alone, the vegetation-runoff systems affect both the T2M and RSDS. Therefore, they considerably affect the simulated PET. Also, the CN-VIC overestimates the PET more than the CN-TOP compared to the Climatic Research Unit observational dataset. In comparison with the static vegetation case and CN-VIC, the CN-TOP shows the least bias of the simulated PET. Overall, our results show that the vegetation-runoff system is relevant in constraining the PET, though the CN-TOP can be recommended for future studies concerning the PET of tropical Africa.

Highlights

Among different processes within the terrestrial hydrological cycle, evapotranspiration (ET) plays an important role in determining the global water balance and linking the global water, energy and carbon cycles (Pielke et al 2002; Bonan 2008; Yang 2015)
It was found that the carbon–nitrogen module enabled (CN)-variable infiltration capacity (VIC) overestimates the T2M more than the Satellite Phenology (SP)-VIC with respect to the Climate Research Unit (CRU)
Uncertainty of the RSDS was quantitatively evaluated with respect to the Solar Radiation Budget (SRB) reanalysis product (Figure S1 in supplements)

Summary

Introduction

Among different processes within the terrestrial hydrological cycle, evapotranspiration (ET) plays an important role in determining the global water balance and linking the global water, energy and carbon cycles (Pielke et al 2002; Bonan 2008; Yang 2015). It controls the retroactions between land and atmosphere through energy fluxes (Mamadou et al 2014, 2016) and sustains precipitation (Taylor et al 2012; Nicholson et al 2013; Koster et al 2004). It is an important input to a variety of hydrological model applications

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Conclusion