Global sea level rise and the greenhouse effect: might they be connected?

Secular sea level trends extracted from tide gauge records of appropriately long duration demonstrate that global sea level may be rising at a rate in excess of 1 millimeter per year. However, because global coverage of the oceans by the tide gauge network is highly nonuniform and the tide gauge data reveal considerable spatial variability, there has been a well-founded reluctance to interpret the observed secular sea level rise as representing a signal of global scale that might be related to the greenhouse effect. When the tide gauge data are filtered so as to remove the contribution of ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment to the local sea level trend at each location, then the individual tide gauge records reveal sharply reduced geographic scatter and suggest that there is a globally coherent signal of strength 2.4 +/- 0.90 millimeters per year that is active in the system. This signal could constitute an indication of global climate warming.     

Global Mean Sea Level Variations from TOPEX/POSEIDON Altimeter Data

The TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimeter mission has measured global mean sea level every 10 days over the last 2 years with a precision of 4 millimeters, which approaches the requirements for climate change research. The estimated rate of sea level change is +3.9 +/- 0.8 millimeters per year. A substantial portion of this trend may represent a short-term variation unrelated to the long-term signal expected from global warming. For this reason, and because the long-term measurement accuracy requires additional monitoring, a longer time series is necessary before climate change signals can be unequivocally detected.     

Carbon pools and flux of global forest ecosystems

Forest systems cover more than 4.1 x 10(9) hectares of the Earth's land area. Globally, forest vegetation and soils contain about 1146 petagrams of carbon, with approximately 37 percent of this carbon in low-latitude forests, 14 percent in mid-latitudes, and 49 percent at high latitudes. Over two-thirds of the carbon in forest ecosystems is contained in soils and associated peat deposits. In 1990, deforestation in the low latitudes emitted 1.6 +/- 0.4 petagrams of carbon per year, whereas forest area expansion and growth in mid- and high-latitude forest sequestered 0.7 +/- 0.2 petagrams of carbon per year, for a net flux to the atmosphere of 0.9 +/- 0.4 petagrams of carbon per year. Slowing deforestation, combined with an increase in forestation and other management measures to improve forest ecosystem productivity, could conserve or sequester significant quantities of carbon. Future forest carbon cycling trends attributable to losses and regrowth associated with global climate and land-use change are uncertain. Model projections and some results suggest that forests could be carbon sinks or sources in the future.     

Interpretation of cloud-climate feedback as produced by 14 atmospheric general circulation models

Understanding the cause of differences among general circulation model projections of carbon dioxide-induced climatic change is a necessary step toward improving the models. An intercomparison of 14 atmospheric general circulation models, for which sea surface temperature perturbations were used as a surrogate climate change, showed that there was a roughly threefold variation in global climate sensitivity. Most of this variation is attributable to differences in the models' depictions of cloud-climate feedback, a result that emphasizes the need for improvements in the treatment of clouds in these models if they are ultimately to be used as climatic predictors.     

How much more global warming and sea level rise?

Two global coupled climate models show that even if the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had been stabilized in the year 2000, we are already committed to further global warming of about another half degree and an additional 320% sea level rise caused by thermal expansion by the end of the 21st century. Projected weakening of the meridional overturning circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean does not lead to a net cooling in Europe. At any given point in time, even if concentrations are stabilized, there is a commitment to future climate changes that will be greater than those we have already observed.     

Global Warming and Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent

Surface and satellite-based observations show a decrease in Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent during the past 46 years. A comparison of these trends to control and transient integrations (forced by observed greenhouse gases and tropospheric sulfate aerosols) from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and Hadley Centre climate models reveals that the observed decrease in Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent agrees with the transient simulations, and both trends are much larger than would be expected from natural climate variations. From long-term control runs of climate models, it was found that the probability of the observed trends resulting from natural climate variability, assuming that the models' natural variability is similar to that found in nature, is less than 2 percent for the 1978-98 sea ice trends and less than 0.1 percent for the 1953-98 sea ice trends. Both models used here project continued decreases in sea ice thickness and extent throughout the next century.     

气候变化与农业可持续发展对策研究

基于IPCC第四次评估报告和气象学家对我国气候变化的研究成果,从温度、降水、海平面上升等几方面分析了气候变化对我国农业生产的影响,提出了应对气候变化的具体措施,并根据气候变化趋势,制定出了防御对策,增强农业对气候变化的应对能力,趋利避害,实现可持续发展。     

Detecting climatic change signals: are there any "fingerprints"?

Projected changes in the Earth's climate can be driven from a combined set of forcing factors consisting of regionally heterogeneous anthropogenic and natural aerosols and land use changes, as well as global-scale influences from solar variability and transient increases in human-produced greenhouse gases. Thus, validation of climate model projections that are driven only by increases in greenhouse gases can be inconsistent when one attempts the validation by looking for a regional or time-evolving "fingerprint" of such projected changes in real climatic data. Until climate models are driven by time-evolving, combined, multiple, and heterogeneous forcing factors, the best global climatic change "fingerprint" will probably remain a many-decades average of hemi-spheric- to global-scale trends in surface air temperatures. Century-long global warming (or cooling) trends of 0.5 degrees C appear to have occurred infrequently over the past several thousand years-perhaps only once or twice a millennium, as proxy records suggest. This implies an 80 to 90 percent heuristic likelihood that the 20th-century 0.5 +/- 0.2 degrees C warming trend is not a wholly natural climatic fluctuation.     

Improved surface temperature prediction for the coming decade from a global climate model

Previous climate model projections of climate change accounted for external forcing from natural and anthropogenic sources but did not attempt to predict internally generated natural variability. We present a new modeling system that predicts both internal variability and externally forced changes and hence forecasts surface temperature with substantially improved skill throughout a decade, both globally and in many regions. Our system predicts that internal variability will partially offset the anthropogenic global warming signal for the next few years. However, climate will continue to warm, with at least half of the years after 2009 predicted to exceed the warmest year currently on record.     

当归在大别山地区引种栽培试验初报

评估甘肃岷归在大别山地区引种栽培的可行性。方法：试验地点设在大别山地区海拔860m和1060m^2处,每处分生地试验和熟地试验2个处理,每个处理设遮荫和不遮荫两种措施;试验分2a进行,第1a育苗,第2a移栽。结果：当归在海拔1060m处的生地生长良好,遮荫处理的当归生长势好于未遮荫的。结论：甘肃岷归在海拔高于1000m以上的大别山地区适合生长,可在该地区引种栽培。     

温室气体排放和气候变化新情景研究的最新进展

IPCC（政府间气候变化专门委员会）在第25次会议上决定,本身不再开发情景,而由专业的研究团队承担起未来第五次评估报告（AR5）所需要的开发情景任务,同时建议新情景用典型浓度路径RCPs来表示,以加速综合情景的开发进程,使气候模型同时能模拟排放情景。本文对此进行了介绍,并建议发展中国家和经济转轨国家更多的参与到新情景和新模型的开发中来,以推进农业气候变化影响评估、支持温室气体排放总量和排放权分配谈判的科学研究。     

The greenhouse effect in central north america: if not now, when?

Climate models with enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations have projected temperature increases of 2 degrees to 4 degrees C, winter precipitation increases of up to 15 percent, and summer precipitation decreases of 5 to 10 percent in the central United States by the year 2030. An analysis of the climate record over the past 95 years for this region was undertaken in order to evaluate these projections. Results indicate that temperature has increased and precipitation decreased both during winter and summer, and that the ratio of winter-to-summer precipitation has decreased. The signs of some trends are consistent with the projections whereas others are not, but none of the changes is statistically significant except for maximum and minimum temperatures, which were not among the parameters predicted by the models. Statistical models indicate that the greenhouse winter and summer precipitation signal could have been masked by natural climate variability, whereas the increase in the ratio of winter-to-summer precipitation and the higher rates of temperature change probably should have already been detected. If the models are correct it will likely take at least another 40 years before statistically significant precipitation changes are detected and another decade or two to detect the projected changes of temperature.     

Ice volume and sea level during the last interglacial

During the last interglacial period, ~125,000 years ago, sea level was at least several meters higher than at present, with substantial variability observed for peak sea level at geographically diverse sites. Speculation that the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed during the last interglacial period has drawn particular interest to understanding climate and ice-sheet dynamics during this time interval. We provide an internally consistent database of coral U-Th ages to assess last interglacial sea-level observations in the context of isostatic modeling and stratigraphic evidence. These data indicate that global (eustatic) sea level peaked 5.5 to 9 meters above present sea level, requiring smaller ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica relative to today and indicating strong sea-level sensitivity to small changes in radiative forcing.     

近50年宁夏酿酒葡萄晚霜冻日数及变化趋势分析

利用1961—2010年宁夏16个气象站的逐日最低气温资料,根据酿酒葡萄霜冻气候指标统计了终霜日、霜冻日数等。采用统计和气候诊断分析方法,研究了宁夏酿酒葡萄的晚霜冻日数和变化趋势。结果表明:近50 a全区酿酒葡萄晚霜冻平均日数为1.8 d/a;近50 a全区酿酒葡萄霜冻日数呈现减少趋势,引黄灌区霜冻日数的线性倾向率与全区接近;全区轻、中、重霜冻日数与50年平均相比,在20世纪70年代偏多,60和80年代基本持平,90年代及以后偏少;气候突变检验结果表明霜冻日数的突变年为1984年。     

Ocean science. Coral clues to rapid sea-level change

Earth's climate can change substantially on time scales of 1000 years or so, but given the time it takes for an ice sheet to grow or melt, it has been unclear whether continental ice sheets-and hence global sea levels-mirror these rapid changes. In his Perspective, Henderson discusses the report by Thompson and Goldstein, who have used a new correction method to date coral samples that are up to 250,000 years old. The corals can be used to deduce past sea levels. The resulting sea-level record shows that sea levels have varied on millennial time scales even during times of high sea level and relative climate stability.     

Rapid wastage of Alaska glaciers and their contribution to rising sea level

We have used airborne laser altimetry to estimate volume changes of 67 glaciers in Alaska from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s. The average rate of thickness change of these glaciers was -0.52 m/year. Extrapolation to all glaciers in Alaska yields an estimated total annual volume change of -52 +/- 15 km3/year (water equivalent), equivalent to a rise in sea level (SLE) of 0.14 +/- 0.04 mm/year. Repeat measurements of 28 glaciers from the mid-1990s to 2000-2001 suggest an increased average rate of thinning, -1.8 m/year. This leads to an extrapolated annual volume loss from Alaska glaciers equal to -96 +/- 35 km3/year, or 0.27 +/- 0.10 mm/year SLE, during the past decade. These recent losses are nearly double the estimated annual loss from the entire Greenland Ice Sheet during the same time period and are much higher than previously published loss estimates for Alaska glaciers. They form the largest glaciological contribution to rising sea level yet measured.     

Recent sea-level contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets

After a century of polar exploration, the past decade of satellite measurements has painted an altogether new picture of how Earth's ice sheets are changing. As global temperatures have risen, so have rates of snowfall, ice melting, and glacier flow. Although the balance between these opposing processes has varied considerably on a regional scale, data show that Antarctica and Greenland are each losing mass overall. Our best estimate of their combined imbalance is about 125 gigatons per year of ice, enough to raise sea level by 0.35 millimeters per year. This is only a modest contribution to the present rate of sea-level rise of 3.0 millimeters per year. However, much of the loss from Antarctica and Greenland is the result of the flow of ice to the ocean from ice streams and glaciers, which has accelerated over the past decade. In both continents, there are suspected triggers for the accelerated ice discharge-surface and ocean warming, respectively-and, over the course of the 21st century, these processes could rapidly counteract the snowfall gains predicted by present coupled climate models.     

Global warming and marine carbon cycle feedbacks on future atmospheric CO2

A low-order physical-biogeochemical climate model was used to project atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming for scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The North Atlantic thermohaline circulation weakens in all global warming simulations and collapses at high levels of carbon dioxide. Projected changes in the marine carbon cycle have a modest impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide. Compared with the control, atmospheric carbon dioxide increased by 4 percent at year 2100 and 20 percent at year 2500. The reduction in ocean carbon uptake can be mainly explained by sea surface warming. The projected changes of the marine biological cycle compensate the reduction in downward mixing of anthropogenic carbon, except when the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation collapses.     

Middle Miocene Southern Ocean cooling and Antarctic cryosphere expansion

Magnesium/calcium data from Southern Ocean planktonic foraminifera demonstrate that high-latitude (approximately 55 degrees S) southwest Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) cooled 6 degrees to 7 degrees C during the middle Miocene climate transition (14.2 to 13.8 million years ago). Stepwise surface cooling is paced by eccentricity forcing and precedes Antarctic cryosphere expansion by approximately 60 thousand years, suggesting the involvement of additional feedbacks during this interval of inferred low-atmospheric partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2). Comparing SSTs and global carbon cycling proxies challenges the notion that episodic pCO2 drawdown drove this major Cenozoic climate transition. SST, salinity, and ice-volume trends suggest instead that orbitally paced ocean circulation changes altered meridional heat/vapor transport, triggering ice growth and global cooling.     

Can rapid climatic change cause volcanic eruptions?

Many major volcanic eruptions coincide with cooling trends of decadal or longer duration that began significantly before the eruptions. Dust veils provide positive feedback for short-term (less than 10 year) global cooling, but seem unlikely to trigger glaciations or even minor climate fluctuations in the 10-to 100-year range. On the contrary, variations in climate lead to stress changes on the earth's crust-for instance, by loading and unloading of ice and water masses and by axial and spin-rate changes that might augment volcanic (and seismic) potential.