Advances in Earth Science ›› 2000, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (4): 446-452. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2000.04.0446

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PERSPECTIVE ON TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM-CLIMATE INTERACTION

CAO Ming-kui ,LI Ke-rang
  

  1. ①Department of Geography,University of Maryland,Maryland,US;②Institute of Geography,CAS,Beijing 100101,China
  • Received:1999-10-13 Revised:2000-01-10 Online:2000-08-01 Published:2000-08-01

CAO Ming-kui,LI Ke-rang. PERSPECTIVE ON TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM-CLIMATE INTERACTION[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2000, 15(4): 446-452.

Terrestrial ecosystems and climatic systems influence each other through biophysical processes that involve the transfers of energy and water at the land surface and biogeochemical cycles that affect the concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. Studies of ecosystem-climate interactions have evolved from uses of land surface parameterizations (LSPs) to sensitivity analysis of climatic responses to equilibrium ecosystem changes and to dynamic, interactive coupling of ecosystem and climatic processes. System modeling is the most important means to study ecosystem-climate interactions.
The global ecosystem models that have been used in the studies can be classified into biophysical, biogeography, and biogeochemical types.Ecosystem changes as a whole in the past have accelerated warming by increasing the emissions of CO2, CH4, and N2O and reducing the regulation of vegetation to water cycling.Ecosystem negative feed-backs on climate have emerged with increases in CO2sequestration and the stabilization of CH4emissions,but continued increases in anthropogenic N2fixation may greatly enhance N2O emissions. To quantify accurately the feedback effects requires investigations of the dynamic ecosystem-climate interactions at seasonal and interannual scales. Future studies should focus on both developing integrated dynamic ecosystem models (IDEM) that can describing both functional and structural changes and coupling biophysical and biogeochemical processes and observing large-scale, long-term ecosystem changes. The observations are essential for deepening understanding of ecosystem-climate interactions and validate global ecosystem models.

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