Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 43, Issue 24, Pages 12550-12559Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2016GL071392
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Funding
- Regional and Global Climate Program for the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE
- NSF [1543268]
- Directorate For Geosciences [1543268] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences [1543268] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In the current generation of climate models, the projected increase in global precipitation over the 21st century ranges from 2% to 10% under a high-emission scenario. Some of this uncertainty can be traced to the rapid response to carbon dioxide (CO2) forcing. We analyze an ensemble of simulations to better understand model spread in this rapid response. A substantial amount is linked to how the land surface partitions a change in latent versus sensible heat flux in response to the CO2-induced radiative perturbation; a larger increase in sensible heat results in a larger decrease in global precipitation. Model differences in the land surface response appear to be strongly related to the vegetation response to increased CO2, specifically, the closure of leaf stomata. Future research should thus focus on evaluation of the vegetation physiological response, including stomatal conductance parameterizations, for the purpose of constraining the fast response of Earth's hydrologic cycle to CO2 forcing.
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