Desert-fringe vegetation growing over bright, sandy soils reduces the surface albedo from above 0.4 to well below 0.3. Called desert-scrub, these shrubs form a predominantly vertical clumps protruding from the soil-le...Desert-fringe vegetation growing over bright, sandy soils reduces the surface albedo from above 0.4 to well below 0.3. Called desert-scrub, these shrubs form a predominantly vertical clumps protruding from the soil-level, thereby significantly increasing the coefficient of turbulent heat transfer from the surface. The impact on global and desert-belt climate of changes in these two surface characteristics was simulated by a multi-layer energy balance tnodel. Evaluated only as a forcing to a further climatic change (that is, without accounting for any possible feedbacks) the results are: if vegetation (such as apparently existed under the warmer climate of 6,000 BP ) grows over large areas in the arid, currently bare-soil regions, the annual Northern Hemisphere surface temperature increases by 0.7t (by 0.6'C in July ), the surface temperature over land in the 20-30°N zone increases by 0.9℃ in both the annual and the July means, and the land-ocean annual temperature contrast in this zone increases by 0.25℃(0.2° in July). These results represent the combined influence of the reduction in the surface albedo and of the increase in the coefficient of turbulent heat transfer. In the desert-belt zones, the increase in the transfer coefficient sharply reduces the land temperature and the land-ocean temperature contrast from the values produced by the albedo change alone. This reduction must be attributed to the increased land-to-ocean circulation (which our model does not evaluate explicitly). Considering that a stronger circulation (resulting from land-ocean temperature contrast) generally forces a higher rainfall, the vegetation which emerged in the arid regions during the post-glacial optimum should be considered a significant positive feedback towards a still warmer, and also a more pluvial, climate. Our study may have implications for the 21st century, if the global warming expected from the enhanced greenhouse effects is accompanied by increased precipitation over the continents.展开更多
文摘Desert-fringe vegetation growing over bright, sandy soils reduces the surface albedo from above 0.4 to well below 0.3. Called desert-scrub, these shrubs form a predominantly vertical clumps protruding from the soil-level, thereby significantly increasing the coefficient of turbulent heat transfer from the surface. The impact on global and desert-belt climate of changes in these two surface characteristics was simulated by a multi-layer energy balance tnodel. Evaluated only as a forcing to a further climatic change (that is, without accounting for any possible feedbacks) the results are: if vegetation (such as apparently existed under the warmer climate of 6,000 BP ) grows over large areas in the arid, currently bare-soil regions, the annual Northern Hemisphere surface temperature increases by 0.7t (by 0.6'C in July ), the surface temperature over land in the 20-30°N zone increases by 0.9℃ in both the annual and the July means, and the land-ocean annual temperature contrast in this zone increases by 0.25℃(0.2° in July). These results represent the combined influence of the reduction in the surface albedo and of the increase in the coefficient of turbulent heat transfer. In the desert-belt zones, the increase in the transfer coefficient sharply reduces the land temperature and the land-ocean temperature contrast from the values produced by the albedo change alone. This reduction must be attributed to the increased land-to-ocean circulation (which our model does not evaluate explicitly). Considering that a stronger circulation (resulting from land-ocean temperature contrast) generally forces a higher rainfall, the vegetation which emerged in the arid regions during the post-glacial optimum should be considered a significant positive feedback towards a still warmer, and also a more pluvial, climate. Our study may have implications for the 21st century, if the global warming expected from the enhanced greenhouse effects is accompanied by increased precipitation over the continents.
