Global sensitivity analysis of the climate–vegetation system to astronomical forcing: an emulator-based approach

A global sensitivity analysis is performed to describe the effects of astronomical forcing on the climate–vegetation system simulated by the model of intermediate complexity LOVECLIM in interglacial conditions. The methodology relies on the estimation of sensitivity measures, using a Gaussian process emulator as a fast surrogate of the climate model, calibrated on a set of well-chosen experiments. The outputs considered are the annual mean temperature and precipitation and the growing degree days (GDD). The experiments were run on two distinct land surface schemes to estimate the importance of vegetation feedbacks on climate variance. This analysis provides a spatial description of the variance due to the factors and their combinations, in the form of "fingerprints" obtained from the covariance indices. The results are broadly consistent with the current under-standing of Earth's climate response to the astronomical forcing. In particular, precession and obliquity are found to contribute in LOVECLIM equally to GDD in the Northern Hemisphere, and the effect of obliquity on the response of Southern Hemisphere temperature dominates precession effects. Precession dominates precipitation changes in subtropical areas. Compared to standard approaches based on a small number of simulations, the methodology presented here allows us to identify more systematically regions susceptible to experiencing rapid climate change in response to the smooth astronomical forcing change. In particular, we find that using interactive vegetation significantly enhances the expected rates of climate change, specifically in the Sahel (up to 50% precipitation change in 1000 years) and in the Canadian Arctic region (up to 3° in 1000 years). None of the tested astronomical configurations were found to induce multiple steady states, but, at low obliquity, we observed the development of an oscillatory pattern that has already been reported in LOVECLIM. Although the mathematics of the analysis are fairly straightforward, the emulation approach still requires considerable care in its implementation. We discuss the effect of the choice of length scales and the type of emulator, and estimate uncertainties associated with specific computational aspects, to conclude that the principal component emulator is a good option for this kind of application

Climate of the last millennium: a sensitivity study

Seventy-one sensitivity experiments have been performed using a two-dimensional sector-averaged global climate model to assess the potential impact of six different factors on the last millennium climate and in particular on the surface air temperature evolution. Both natural (i.e, solar and volcanism) and anthropogenically-induced (i.e. deforestation, additional greenhouse gases, and tropospheric aerosol burden) climate forcings have been considered.Comparisons of climate reconstructions with model results indicate that all the investigated forcings are needed to simulate the surface air temperature evolution. Due to uncertainties in historical climate forcings and temperature reconstructions, the relative importance of a particular forcing in the explanation of the recorded temperature variance is largely function of the forcing time series used. Nevertheless, our results indicate that whatever the historical solar and volcanic reconstructions may be, these externally driven natural climate forcings are unable to dive climate responses comparable in magnitude and time to the late-20th-century temperature warming while for earlier periods combination of solar and volcanic forcings can explain the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period. Only the greenhouse gas forcing allows the model to simulate an accelerated warming rate during the last three decades. The best guess simulation (largest similarity with the reconstruction) for the period starting 1850 AD requires however to include anthropogenic sulphate forcing as well as the impact of deforestation to constrain the magnitude of the greenhouse gas twentieth century warming to better fit the observation. On the contrary, prior to 1850 AD mid-latitude land clearance tends to reinforce the Little Ice age in our simulations

Bayesian model selection for the glacial-interglacial cycle

A prevailing viewpoint in paleoclimate science is that a single paleoclimate record contains insufficient information to discriminate between typical competing explanatory models. Here we show that by using SMC² (sequential Monte Carlo squared) combined with novel Brownian bridge type proposals for the state trajectories, it is possible to estimate Bayes factors to sufficient accuracy to be able to select between competing models, even with relatively short time series. The results show that Monte Carlo methodology and computer power have now advanced to the point where a full Bayesian analysis for a wide class of conceptual climate models is now possible. The results also highlight a problem with estimating the chronology of the climate record prior to further statistical analysis, a practice which is common in paleoclimate science. Using two datasets based on the same record but with different estimated chronologies, results in conflicting conclusions about the importance of the astronomical forcing on the glacial cycle, and about the internal dynamics generating the glacial cycle, even though the difference between the two estimated chronologies is consistent with dating uncertainty. This highlights a need for chronology estimation and other inferential questions to be addressed in a joint statistical procedure

The Eurasian ice sheet reinforces the East Asian summer monsoon during the interglacial 500 000 years ago

Deep-sea and ice-core records show that interglacial periods were overall less "warm" before about 420 000 years ago than after, with relatively higher ice volume and lower greenhouse gases concentration. This is particularly the case for the interglacial Marine Isotope Stage 13 which occurred about 500 000 years ago. However, by contrast, the loess and other proxy records from China suggest an exceptionally active East Asian summer monsoon during this interglacial. A three-dimension Earth system Model of Intermediate complexity was used to understand this seeming paradox. The astronomical forcing and the remnant ice sheets present in Eurasia and North America were taken into account in a series of sensitivity experiments. Expectedly, the seasonal contrast is larger and the East Asian summer monsoon is reinforced compared to Pre-Industrial time when Northern Hemisphere summer is at perihelion. Surprisingly, the presence of the Eurasian ice sheet was found to reinforce monsoon, too, through a south-eastwards perturbation planetary wave. The trajectory of this wave is influenced by the Tibetan plateau

ESD Ideas: Propagation of high-frequency forcing to ice age dynamics

Palaeoclimate records display a continuous background of variability connecting centennial to 100&thinsp;kyr periods. Hence, the dynamics at the centennial, millennial, and astronomical timescales should not be treated separately. Here, we show that the nonlinear character of ice sheet dynamics, which was derived naturally from the ice-flow conservation laws, provides the scaling constraints to explain the structure of the observed spectrum of variability.</p

Survival of the Systems

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from cell Press via the DOI in this recordSince Darwin, individuals and more recently genes have been the focus of evolutionary thinking. The idea that selection operates on non-reproducing, higher-level systems including ecosystems or societies has met with scepticism. But research emphasising that natural selection can be based solely on differential persistence invites reconsideration of their evolution. Self-perpetuating feedback cycles involving biotic as well as abiotic components are critical to determining persistence. Evolution of autocatalytic networks of molecules is well studied, but the principles hold for any ‘self-perpetuating’ system. Ecosystem examples include coral reefs, rainforests and savannahs. Societal examples include agricultural systems, dominant belief systems and economies. Persistence-based selection of feedbacks can help us understand how ecological and societal systems survive or fail in a changing world

Modeling the dynamics of glacial cycles

This article is concerned with the dynamics of glacial cycles observed in the geological record of the Pleistocene Epoch. It focuses on a conceptual model proposed by Maasch and Saltzman [J. Geophys. Res.,95, D2 (1990), pp. 1955-1963], which is based on physical arguments and emphasizes the role of atmospheric CO2 in the generation and persistence of periodic orbits (limit cycles). The model consists of three ordinary differential equations with four parameters for the anomalies of the total global ice mass, the atmospheric CO2 concentration, and the volume of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). In this article, it is shown that a simplified two-dimensional symmetric version displays many of the essential features of the full model, including equilibrium states, limit cycles, their basic bifurcations, and a Bogdanov-Takens point that serves as an organizing center for the local and global dynamics. Also, symmetry breaking splits the Bogdanov-Takens point into two, with different local dynamics in their neighborhoods