How was the carbon balance of Europe affected by the summer 2003 heat wave? : a study based on the use of a dynamic global vegetation model; LPJ-GUESS
(2011) In Lunds universitets Naturgeografiska institution - SeminarieuppsatserDept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- Abstract
- Extreme events are believed to become frequent, intense and long lasting with climate change. An example of such extreme event is the record breaking summer 2003 heat wave. The 2003 heat wave, accompanied by drought conditions, had severe impacts on the European terrestrial ecosystems. In this study we have used an ecosystem model LPJ-GUESS to investigate how the carbon balance of Europe was affected by the European summer 2003 heat wave. The model was first tested on a smaller scale and later on run for all of Europe in the domain bounded by 23.5o W - 35o E and 36o N – 70.5o N. To be able to regionally examine the changes in climate and terrestrial ecosystem carbon fluxes, Europe is further divided into three regions: Northern, Western... (More)
- Extreme events are believed to become frequent, intense and long lasting with climate change. An example of such extreme event is the record breaking summer 2003 heat wave. The 2003 heat wave, accompanied by drought conditions, had severe impacts on the European terrestrial ecosystems. In this study we have used an ecosystem model LPJ-GUESS to investigate how the carbon balance of Europe was affected by the European summer 2003 heat wave. The model was first tested on a smaller scale and later on run for all of Europe in the domain bounded by 23.5o W - 35o E and 36o N – 70.5o N. To be able to regionally examine the changes in climate and terrestrial ecosystem carbon fluxes, Europe is further divided into three regions: Northern, Western and Eastern Europe. In this study, we addressed the following secondary questions: (1) How large were the 2003 European terrestrial ecosystem carbon flux anomaly relative to the reference period 1998-2002, (2) were there regional differences in climate and carbon flux anomalies during the growing season 2003, (3) how unusual was the 2003 European terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance in the context of last century, (4) which component(s) of climate (i.e. temperature or drought) played the greatest role in the 2003 terrestrial carbon flux anomalies, and (5) which ecosystem process (photosynthesis (GPP) or respiration (TER)) controlled the carbon balance anomaly of 2003 relative to the reference period (1998-2002).
The results show that, at the regionally scale, Northern and Eastern European terrestrial ecosystems acted as a sink of carbon (0.01GtC and 0.01GtC respectively) while Western European terrestrial ecosystems acted as a source of carbon (0.04 GtC) to the atmosphere over the growing season of 2003 relative to the reference period. Our results also suggest that, the growing season gross primary production and terrestrial ecosystem respiration reduction in Western Europe can be explained by the extreme summer heat and drought condition while that of Eastern Europe can be explained by the drought condition. At the continental scale, LPJ-GUESS predicts a 2003 growing season carbon source anomaly of about 0.03GtC to the atmosphere in response to heat wave and drought in 2003 relative to the reference period 1998-2002. Our growing season estimates fall within the range of other previous studies. This 2003 negative carbon balance anomaly is controlled by the ecosystems experiencing reductions in both photosynthesis and terrestrial ecosystem respiration. Over the last decades (1980-2006), LPJ-GUESS predicts a net carbon uptake of about 170Tg C/yr which is equivalent to about 11% of the annual-average European (EU-27) greenhouse gas emissions between 1980 –2005. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1971255
- author
- Ebang, Nzung Seraphine
- supervisor
-
- Paul Miller LU
- organization
- year
- 2011
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- climate change, carbon balance, Europe, heat waves, LPJ-GUESS, drought, terrestrial ecosystems
- publication/series
- Lunds universitets Naturgeografiska institution - Seminarieuppsatser
- report number
- 201
- language
- English
- id
- 1971255
- date added to LUP
- 2011-05-30 11:14:30
- date last changed
- 2011-12-21 12:10:29
@misc{1971255,
abstract = {{Extreme events are believed to become frequent, intense and long lasting with climate change. An example of such extreme event is the record breaking summer 2003 heat wave. The 2003 heat wave, accompanied by drought conditions, had severe impacts on the European terrestrial ecosystems. In this study we have used an ecosystem model LPJ-GUESS to investigate how the carbon balance of Europe was affected by the European summer 2003 heat wave. The model was first tested on a smaller scale and later on run for all of Europe in the domain bounded by 23.5o W - 35o E and 36o N – 70.5o N. To be able to regionally examine the changes in climate and terrestrial ecosystem carbon fluxes, Europe is further divided into three regions: Northern, Western and Eastern Europe. In this study, we addressed the following secondary questions: (1) How large were the 2003 European terrestrial ecosystem carbon flux anomaly relative to the reference period 1998-2002, (2) were there regional differences in climate and carbon flux anomalies during the growing season 2003, (3) how unusual was the 2003 European terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance in the context of last century, (4) which component(s) of climate (i.e. temperature or drought) played the greatest role in the 2003 terrestrial carbon flux anomalies, and (5) which ecosystem process (photosynthesis (GPP) or respiration (TER)) controlled the carbon balance anomaly of 2003 relative to the reference period (1998-2002).
The results show that, at the regionally scale, Northern and Eastern European terrestrial ecosystems acted as a sink of carbon (0.01GtC and 0.01GtC respectively) while Western European terrestrial ecosystems acted as a source of carbon (0.04 GtC) to the atmosphere over the growing season of 2003 relative to the reference period. Our results also suggest that, the growing season gross primary production and terrestrial ecosystem respiration reduction in Western Europe can be explained by the extreme summer heat and drought condition while that of Eastern Europe can be explained by the drought condition. At the continental scale, LPJ-GUESS predicts a 2003 growing season carbon source anomaly of about 0.03GtC to the atmosphere in response to heat wave and drought in 2003 relative to the reference period 1998-2002. Our growing season estimates fall within the range of other previous studies. This 2003 negative carbon balance anomaly is controlled by the ecosystems experiencing reductions in both photosynthesis and terrestrial ecosystem respiration. Over the last decades (1980-2006), LPJ-GUESS predicts a net carbon uptake of about 170Tg C/yr which is equivalent to about 11% of the annual-average European (EU-27) greenhouse gas emissions between 1980 –2005.}},
author = {{Ebang, Nzung Seraphine}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Lunds universitets Naturgeografiska institution - Seminarieuppsatser}},
title = {{How was the carbon balance of Europe affected by the summer 2003 heat wave? : a study based on the use of a dynamic global vegetation model; LPJ-GUESS}},
year = {{2011}},
}