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A nested coupled model has been developed to investigate the two-way interactions between the regional climate of eastern Africa and Lake Victoria. The atmospheric component of the model is the North Carolina State University (NCSU) version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) regional climate model (NCSU-RegCM2). The lake component of the model is based on the Princeton ocean model (POM).Three simulations, each 4 months long, have been performed for the short rains of eastern Africa of September through to December. The control experiment is based on the standard NCSU-RegCM2 model coupled to a one-dimensional model of Lake Victoria. The second experiment was based on the stand-alone three-dimensional primitive equation POM-Lake Victoria model forced by output from the atmospheric component of the control run. The third experiment is based on the integration of the coupled system of the NCSU-RegCM2 model where the one-dimensional lake model in the control run has been replaced by the three-dimensional POM hydrodynamical model for Lake Victoria.The results confirm that adopting the traditional modelling approach, in which the lake hydrodynamics are neglected and the formulation is based entirely on thermodynamics alone, is not entirely satisfactory for the Lake Victoria basin. Such a strategy precludes the transport of heat realistically within the lake, from the heat surplus regions to the cooler regions, and thereby results in a degraded simulation of the climate downstream over the rest of the lake and the surrounding land regions. The numerical simulations show that the southwestern region of the lake is an important source of warm water because it is relatively shallower and the water column is heated up much more quickly during the day than the rest of the lake. The result is that the surface temperature anomaly field from the all-lake area average consists of a gradient pattern with warmer water over the shallow region of the lake over the southeastern sector and a colder pool of water over the northeastern region, where the lake is relatively deeper. This pattern is also reproduced by the one-dimensional lake model. Some of the excess heat over the southeastern region is transported to the colder and deeper region over the northeastern part of the lake by prevailing surface wind flow. Through the lake-atmosphere coupling, the resulting asymmetric lake-surface temperature distribution modifies the overlying wind circulation, which in turn reduces the cloud cover and rainfall. This secondary feature in the surface temperature structure cannot be generated by the traditional nested climate models, such as the standard version of the NCAR-RegCM2 model, since the simple static lake model formulation is not capable of supporting horizontal mixing of water. Comparisons show that this feature is weaker in the RegCM2-POM coupled model than the corresponding pattern that we obtained in our previous study based on the 'stand-alone' POM lake model. In contrast, from the simple classical tex...

The Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) affects ecosystems, biodiversity, and food security of billions of people. In recent decades, ASM strength (as represented by precipitation) has been decreasing, but instrumental measurements span only a short period of time. The initiation and the dynamics of the recent trend are unclear. Here for the first time, we use an ensemble of 10 tree ring‐width chronologies from the west‐central margin of ASM to reconstruct detail of ASM variability back to 1566 CE. The reconstruction captures weak/strong ASM events and also reflects major locust plagues. Notably, we found an unprecedented 80‐year trend of decreasing ASM strength within the context of the 448‐year reconstruction, which is contrary to what is expected from greenhouse warming. Our coupled climate model shows that increasing anthropogenic sulfate aerosol emissions over the Northern Hemisphere could be the dominant factor contributing to the ASM decrease.

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Abstract:The Qinghai-Tibet (QT) Plateau Engineering Corridor is located in the hinterland of the QT Plateau, which is highly sensitive to global climate change. Climate change causes permafrost degradation, which subsequently affects vegetation growth. This study focused on the vegetation dynamics and their relationships with climate change and human activities in the region surrounding the QT Plateau Engineering Corridor. The vegetation changes were inferred by applying trend analysis, the Mann-Kendall trend test and abrupt change analysis. Six key regions, each containing 40 nested quadrats that ranged in size from 500 × 500 m to 20 × 20 km, were selected to determine the spatial scales of the impacts from different factors. Cumulative growing season integrated enhanced vegetation index (CGSIEVI) values were calculated for each of the nested quadrats of different sizes to indicate the overall vegetation state over the entire year at different spatial scales. The impacts from human activities, a sudden increase in precipitation and permafrost degradation were quantified at different spatial scales using the CGSIEVI values and meteorological data based on the double mass curve method. Three conclusions were derived. First, the vegetation displayed a significant increasing trend over 23.6% of the study area. The areas displaying increases were mainly distributed in the Hoh Xil. Of the area where the vegetation displayed a significant decreasing trend, 72.4% was made up of alpine meadows. Second, more vegetation, especially the alpine meadows, has begun to degenerate or experience more rapid degradation since 2007 due to permafrost degradation and overgrazing. Finally, an active layer depth of 3 m to 3.2 m represents a limiting depth for alpine meadows.

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The Yellow River (YR) is the fifth-longest and the most sediment-laden river in the world. Frequent historical YR flooding events, however, have resulted in tremendous loss of life and property, whereas in recent decades YR runoff and sediment load have fallen sharply. To put these recent changes in a longer-term context, we reconstructed natural runoff for the middle reach of the YR back to 1492 CE using a network of 31 moisture-sensitive tree-ring width chronologies. Prior to anthropogenic interference that started in the 1960s, the lowest natural runoff over the past 500 y occurred during 1926 to 1932 CE, a drought period that can serve as a benchmark for future planning of YR water allocation. Since the late 1980s, the low observed YR runoff has exceeded the natural range of runoff variability, a consequence of the combination of decreasing precipitation and increasing water consumption by direct and indirect human activities, particularly agricultural irrigation. This reduced runoff has resulted in an estimated 58% reduction of the sediment load in the upper reach of the YR and 29% reduction in the middle reach.