Land-Climate Dynamics

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview on the role of land processes (vegetation and soil moisture dynamics, land-atmosphere exchanges) for the climate system.

During lectures, the students will be introduced to:

• processes affecting land-atmosphere interactions
• coupling between water and energy fluxes at the surface
• land controls on climate extremes (temperature, drought)
• regional and global effects of land cover changes on climate
  

During exercices, the students will have the opportunity to:

• work with real-world observational datasets used for research applications
  
• run simple land surface models forced with historical atmospheric conditions
• discuss general issues related to uncertainty, model complexity and parameterization

Distributed in small groups, students will select a proposed topic and look at recent scientific advances and challenges in relation to this subject. Group supervisors will guide the students through their literature readings, answer questions and initiate discussions. Groups will present a summary of their findings in the form of an oral presentation.

Selected readings

• protected pageBonan, Science, 2008lock: Forests and climate change: Forcings, feedbacks, and the climate benefits of forests.
• protected pageFriedlingstein et al, J. Climate, 2006lock: Climate–carbon cycle feedback analysis: Results from the C4MIP model intercomparison.
• external pageIPCC SRCCL Chapter 2: Land-Climate Interactionscall_made
  
• protected pageSeneviratne et al, Earth-Science Reviews, 2010:lock Investigating soil moisture–climate interactions in a changing climate: A review.

Further readings

• protected pageArneth et al, Nature Geoscience, 2010lock: Terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system.
• external pageKoster et al, Science, 2004call_made: Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation.
  
• protected pageCiais et al, Nature, 2005lock: Europe-wide reduction in primary productivity caused by the heat and drought in 2003.
• protected pageDavin et al, PNAS, 2014lock: Preferential cooling of hot extremes from cropland albedo management
  
• protected pageDirmeyer et al, BAMS, 2006lock: GSWP-2 multimodel analysis and implications for our perception of the land surface.
• protected pageFindell and Eltahir, J. Hydrometeorology, 2003lock: Atmospheric Controls on Soil Moisture–Boundary Layer Interactions. Part I: Framework Development.
• protected pageGreve et al, Nature Geoscience, 2014lock: Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land
  
• protected pageGuillod et al, Nature Communications, 2015lock: Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall
  
• protected pageHirschi et al, Nature Geoscience, 2011lock: Observational evidence for soil-moisture impact on hot extremes in southeastern Europe.
• external pageHumphrey et al. Nature, 2018call_made: Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 growth rate to observed changes in terrestrial water storage.
• external pageHumphrey et al. Nature, 2021call_made: Soil moisture–atmosphere feedback dominates land carbon uptake variability.
• external pageIPCC AR6 Chapter 5call_made: Global Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks.
• external pageIPCC AR6 Chapter 11call_made: Weather and Climate Extreme Events in a Changing Climate.
  
• protected pageJung et al, Nature, 2010lock: Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply.
• protected pageKoster et al, J. Hydrometeorology, 2011lock: The second phase of the Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment: Soil moisture contributions to subseasonal forecast skill.
• protected pageLenton et al, PNAS, 2008lock: Tipping elements in the Earth’s climate system.
• external pageLiu et al. Nature Communications, 2020call_made: Soil moisture dominates dryness stress on ecosystem production globally.
  
• protected pageMalhi et al, Science, 2008lock: Climate change, deforestation, and the fate of the Amazon.
• protected pageMiralles et al, Nature Geoscience, 2014lock: Mega-heatwave temperatures due to combined soil desiccation and atmospheric heat accumulation
  
• protected pageMorgan et al, Nature, 2011lock: C4 grasses prosper as carbon dioxide eliminates desiccation in warmed semi-arid grassland.
• protected pageMueller and Seneviratne, PNAS, 2012lock: Hot days induced by precipitation deficits at the global scale.
• protected pageNorby et al, PNAS, 2010lock: CO2 enhancement of forest productivity constrained by limited nitrogen availability.
• DownloadOrlowsky and Seneviratne, J. Climate, 2010vertical_align_bottom: Confounding effects
• protected pageOrth and Seneviratne, J. Climate, 2017lock: Variability of soil moisture and sea surface temperatures similarly important for warm-season land climate in the Community Earth System Model.
• external pagePadrón et al. Nature Geoscience, 2020call_made: Observed changes in dry-season water availability attributed to human-induced climate change.
  
• protected pagePitman et al, Geophys. Res. Let., 2009lock: Uncertainties in climate responses to past land cover change: First results from the LUCID intercomparison study.
• protected pageQuesada et al, Nature Climate Change, 2012lock: Asymmetric European summer heat predictability from wet and dry southern winters and springs
  
• DownloadSalvucci et al., 2002, Adv. Wat. Res.vertical_align_bottom: Granger causality.
• protected pageScheffer et al, Nature, 2009lock: Early-warning signals for critical transitions.
• protected pageSellers et al, Science, 1997lock: Modeling the exchanges of energy, water, and carbon between continents and the atmosphere.
• protected pageSeneviratne et al, Nature, 2006lock: Land–atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe.
• protected pageSeneviratne et al, Nature, 2016lock: Allowable CO 2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets
• protected pageSheffield et al, Nature, 2012lock: Little change in global drought over the past 60 years
  
• protected pageTaylor et al, Nature, 2012lock: Afternoon rain more likely over dry soils.
• protected pageTeuling et al, Nature Geoscience, 2010lock: Contrasting response of European forest and grassland energy exchange to heatwaves
  
• protected pageVan der Ent et al, Water Resources Research, 2010lock: Origin and fate of atmospheric moisture over continents.