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Modeling and analysis of the potential impacts on regional climate due to vegetation degradation over arid and semi-arid regions of China

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Abstract

The regional climate effects of vegetation change in arid and semi-arid regions of China, which has experienced serious grassland degradation, are investigated in this study using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model. Two long-term simulation experiments (from January 1, 1980 to March 1, 2010), one with the land cover derived from the original United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) data (denoted as CTL) and the other (denoted as SEN) with a modification of the former one by vegetation degradation in arid and semi-arid regions of China, are undertaken to investigate the influence of land cover change on regional climate over arid and semi-arid regions of China. The possible mechanisms of how land cover change affects the regional climate in arid and semi-arid regions of China are also examined. The simulation results indicate that when compared with the observation datasets, the WRF model simulates the spatial pattern of observed temperature and precipitation quite well. After vegetation degradation over the arid and semi-arid regions of China, the net radiation and evaporation are reduced mainly within the degraded areas in summer, consistent with the reduction in precipitation and the increase in 2-m air temperature (T2 m).

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2016YFA0600403), the National Basic Research Program (No. 2012CB956203), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41305062). The authors also thank the helpful comments from Dr. Brian Billings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Liang Chen, Zhuguo Ma & Tianbao Zhao

  2. Global Institute of Water Security, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Liang Chen

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  1. Liang Chen
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  2. Zhuguo Ma
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  3. Tianbao Zhao
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Correspondence to Liang Chen.

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This article is part of a Special Issue on “Decadal Scale Drought in Arid Regions” edited by Zong-Liang Yang and Zhuguo Ma.

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Chen, L., Ma, Z. & Zhao, T. Modeling and analysis of the potential impacts on regional climate due to vegetation degradation over arid and semi-arid regions of China. Climatic Change 144, 461–473 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1847-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1847-2

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