%0 Journal Article
%T Impacts of Future Grassland Changes on Surface Climate in Mongolia
%A Fan Zhang
%A Xing Li
%A Weimin Wang
%A Xinli Ke
%A Qingling Shi
%J Advances in Meteorology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/263746
%X Climate change caused by land use/cover change (LUCC) is becoming a hot topic in current global change, especially the changes caused by the grassland degradation. In this paper, based on the baseline underlying surface data of 1993, the predicted underlying surface data which can be derived through overlaying the grassland degradation information to the map of baseline underlying surface, and the atmospheric forcing data of RCP 6.0 from CMIP5, climatological changes caused by future grassland changes for the years 2010每2020 and 2040每2050 with the Weather Research Forecast model (WRF) are simulated. The model-based analysis shows that future grassland degradation will significantly result in regional climate change. The grassland degradation in future could lead to an increasing trend of temperature in most areas and corresponding change range of the annual average temperature of ˋ0.1∼C每0.4∼C, and it will cause a decreasing trend of precipitation and corresponding change range of the annual average precipitation of 10ˋmm每50ˋmm. This study identifies lines of evidence for effects of future grassland degradation on regional climate in Mongolia which provides meaningful decision-making information for the development and strategy plan making in Mongolia. 1. Introduction During the last millennium, human beings have changed natural ecosystems, such as converting forest lands and grasslands into croplands, pastures, and bare soil [1]. The land use and cover changes (LUCC), in which the human activities play a dominant role, interact with the environment and have significant effects on the ecosystems at the local, regional, and global scales and consequently directly or indirectly exert great influence on the global climate changes [2每5]. Anthropogenic climate changes gradually attracted worldwide concerns in recent years. The interaction mechanisms between land surface processes and climatic conditions have been increasingly investigated and modeled. These LUCC will continue to exert impacts on the climate in the future. The conversion from one land use/cover type to another is more often than an impermanent change. Thus any impact on the climate due to this change would not be short lived; rather it would be a long term effect having lasting effects on the climate [6]. Significant global warming occurred in the twentieth century and especially in the most recent decades. Global mean surface air temperature increased with a rate of 0.07∼C per decade from 1906 to 2005 [7]. It seems that the magnitude of importance of LUCC on future climate can only be
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/amete/2013/263746/