Identification

Title

Vegetation-climate interactions in the warm mid-Cretaceous

Abstract

Vegetation-climate interactions are thought to have amplified polar warmth during past warm periods. Here, we explore the vegetation-climate interactions in the mid-Cretaceous using a fully coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model with a dynamic vegetation component. We run simulations with 1x, 10x and 16x pre-industrial atmospheric CO2. Results show that forests expand from mid-latitudes to high latitudes as CO2 increases from 1x to 10x and 16x, mainly due to the CO2-induced warming. This expansion of mid-to-high latitude forests are largely supported by the distribution of mid-Cretaceous fossil woods and coal deposits. Globally, the presence of vegetation increases mean annual temperature and precipitation by 0.9 °C and 0.11 mm day⁻¹ relative to bare ground. High-latitude warming induced by the presence of vegetation (~1.9 °C) is less than half of that reported in previous studies. The weaker warming here is mainly due to less pronounced albedo feedbacks, and to a less extent, reduced poleward heat transport via weakening of the meridional overturning circulation. Our results suggest that other mechanisms in addition to high atmospheric CO₂ and high-latitude vegetation are required to maintain the polar warmth.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d77m08nb

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2012-03-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact