Simulated effects of vegetation increase/decrease on temperature changes from 1982 to 2000 across the Eastern China

Abstract

The local/regional temperature changes were significantly regulated by land surface changes. This study aims to reveal the effects of vegetation increase/decrease on temperature changes from 1982 to 2000 across the Eastern China. To reach this goal, we performed two 20-year simulations, dynamical vegetation experiment (DYCV) and fixed vegetation experiment (FIXV), with the coupled Weather Research and Forecast (WRF)-Noah model. The DYCV used the essential satellite-measured vegetation variations from 1982 to 2000 while FIXV kept the vegetation properties in 1982 for the entire simulation. The results show that vegetation increase/decrease exerted negative effects locally and the effects were stronger in growth season than that in non-growth season. From 1982 to 2000, in the areas where vegetation increased, such as North China Plain for the spring and south part of Northeast China for the summer and autumn, climate warming was slowed; whereas, in the areas where vegetation decreased, such as Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta for the summer, climate warming was enhanced. Such negative effect was resulted from changes in partition of surface net radiation between surface latent heat and sensible heat. Increased vegetation caused more evaportranspiration and thus more latent heat and less sensible heat; it is reverse for the decreased vegetation. In comparing, changes in surface net radiation were too slight to be detected. Noted that, due to flaws of coupled WRF-Noah model, the results for the summer and winter have some uncertainties and needed to be verified with more studies. Copyright © 2013 Royal Meteorological Society