Ecohydrological responses to solar radiation changes
<p>The implementation of future geoengineering projects to counteract global warming trends or more generally changes in aerosol loads alter solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These changes could have effects on ecohydrological systems with impacts which are still poorly quanti...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Online Access: | https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/29/381/2025/hess-29-381-2025.pdf |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | <p>The implementation of future geoengineering projects to counteract global warming trends or more generally changes in aerosol loads alter solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These changes could have effects on ecohydrological systems with impacts which are still poorly quantified. Here, we compute how changes in solar radiation affect global and local near-surface meteorological variables by using CMIP6 model results. Using climate model outputs, we compute climate sensitivities to solar radiation alterations. These sensitivities are then applied to local observations and used to construct two sets of numerical experiments: the first focuses on solar radiation changes only, and the second systematically modifies precipitation, air temperature, specific humidity, and wind speed using the CMIP6-derived sensitivities to radiation changes, i.e., including its land–atmosphere feedback. We use those scenarios as input to a mechanistic ecohydrological model to quantify the local responses of the energy and water budgets as well as vegetation productivity spanning different biomes and climates.</p>
<p>In the absence of land–atmosphere feedback, changes in solar radiation tend to reflect mostly in sensible heat changes, with minor effects on the hydrological cycle, and vegetation productivity correlates linearly with changes in solar radiation. When land–atmosphere feedback is included, changes in latent heat and hydrological variables are much more pronounced, mostly because of the temperature and vapor pressure deficit changes associated with solar radiation changes. Vegetation productivity tends to have an asymmetric response with a considerable decrease in gross primary production to a radiation reduction not accompanied by a similar increase at higher radiation. These results provide important insights into how ecosystems could respond to potential future changes in shortwave radiation including solar geoengineering programs.</p> |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1027-5606 1607-7938 |