Award Abstract # 1418411
Collaborative Research: Arctic Temperature Amplification during the Middle Pliocene (ArcAMP): Assessing the interaction among feedback mechanisms

NSF Org: OPP
Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
Recipient: UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
Initial Amendment Date: June 16, 2014
Latest Amendment Date: June 16, 2014
Award Number: 1418411
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Gregory Anderson
greander@nsf.gov
 (703)292-4693
OPP
 Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: October 1, 2014
End Date: September 30, 2020 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $300,598.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $300,598.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2014 = $300,598.00
History of Investigator:
  • Bette Otto-Bliesner (Principal Investigator)
    ottobli@ucar.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University Corporation For Atmospheric Res
3090 CENTER GREEN DR
BOULDER
CO  US  80301-2252
(303)497-1000
Sponsor Congressional District: 02
Primary Place of Performance: National Center for Atmospheric Research
1850 Table Mesa Drive
Boulder
CO  US  80305-5602
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): YEZEE8W5JKA3
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): ARCSS-Arctic System Science
Primary Program Source: 0100XXXXDB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1079, 5219
Program Element Code(s): 521900
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.078

ABSTRACT

The Arctic is currently warming faster than anywhere else on Earth. This so-called Arctic Amplification of surface temperatures is well documented; however, the various feedback mechanisms and how they co-operate to amplify arctic temperatures remain uncertain. Important clues for solving some of these fundamental climate questions regarding arctic amplification may be found during the Pliocene (2.6 to 5.3 million years ago), which is the last time in Earth's history when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were comparable to modern concentrations of about 400 ppm, and yet arctic temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees C warmer.

This project investigates the interactions among terrestrial feedback mechanisms during the Pliocene and their role in amplifying arctic surface temperatures. In particular, it investigates the net radiative forcing of vegetation albedo, atmospheric water vapor, and black carbon emitted from fire on the arctic climate system. This will be accomplished by conducting high-resolution reconstructions of past temperatures, atmospheric CO2, and fire for three high arctic sites that have been recently well-dated by terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides. To disentangle how these processes may have been interacting to amplify arctic temperatures, a series of climate experiments will be conducted using the Community Earth System Model.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 16)
Alan M. Haywood, Harry J. Dowsett, Aisling M. Dolan, David Rowley, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Mark A. Chandler, Stephen J. Hunter, Daniel J. Lunt, Matthew Pound, and Ulrich Salzmann "The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) Phase 2: scientific objectives and experimental design" Climate of the Past , v.12 , 2016 , p.663
Burke, K.D., J.W. Williams, M.A. Chandler, A.M Haywood, D.J. Lunt, B.L. Otto-Bliesner "A novel future: Pliocene and Eocene provide best analogues for new-future climates" PNAS , v.115 , 2018 , p.13288
de Nooijer, W., Zhang, Q., Li, Q., Zhang, Q., Li, X., Zhang, Z., Guo, C., Nisancioglu, K. H., Haywood, A. M., Tindall, J. C., Hunter, S. J., Dowsett, H. J., Stepanek, C., Lohmann, G., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Feng, R., Sohl, L. E., Chandler, M. A., Tan, N., "Evaluation of Arctic warming in mid-Pliocene climate simulations" Clim. Past , 2020 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2325-2020
Dowsett, H.J., M.M. Robinson, K.M. Foley, T.D. Herbert, B.L. Otto-Bliesner, and W. Spivey "The mid-Piacenzian of the North Atlantic Ocean" Stratigraphy , 2019
Feng, J., B. Otto-Bliesner, E. Brady, and N. Rosenbloom "Increasing Earth System Sensitivity in Mid-Pliocene simulations from CCSM4 to CESM2" Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems , v.12 , 2020
Feng, R., B.L. Otto-Bliesner, T.L. Fletcher, C.R. Tabor, A.P. Ballantyne, and E.C. Brady "Amplified Late Pliocene terrestrial warmth in northern high latitudes from greater radiative forcing and closed Arctic Ocean gateways" Earth and Planetary Science Letters , v.466 , 2017 , p.129
Feng, R., B. Otto-Bliesner, Y. Xu, E. Brady, T. Fletcher, and A. Ballantyne "Seasonally sea ice-free Arctic driven by a clean troposphere three-million years ago" Geophysical Research Letters , v.46 , 2019 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083960
Fischer, H., ... B.L. Otto-Bliesner et al. "Palaeoclimate constraints on a world with post-industrial warming of 2 degrees and beyond" Nature Geoscience , v.11 , 2018 , p.474
Fletcher, T., Feng, R., Telka, A.M., Matthews, J.V. and Ballantyne, A. "Floral dissimilarity and the influence of climate in the Pliocene High Arctic: Biotic and abiotic influences on five sites on the Canadian Arctic Archipelago" Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution , v.5 , 2017 , p.19
Haywood, A. M., Tindall, J. C., Dowsett, H. J., Dolan, A. M., Foley, K. M., Hunter, S. J., Hill, D. J., Chan, W.-L., Abe-Ouchi, A., Stepanek, C., Lohmann, G., Chandan, D., Peltier, W. R., Tan, N., Contoux, C., Ramstein, G., Li, X., Zhang, Z., Guo, C., Nis "The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2: large-scale climate features and climate sensitivity" Clim. Past , 2020 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2095-2020
Haywood, A., P. Valdes, T. Aze, N. Barlow, A. Burke, A. Dolan, A. von der Heydt, D. Hill, S. Jamieson, B. Otto-Bliesner, U. Salzmann, E. Saupe, and J. Voss "What can palaeoclimate models do for you?" Earth Systems and Environment , 2019 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-019-00093-1
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 16)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Past warm states are important proving grounds for models that are to be used for projections of future global and regional climate. Thus, from a policy perspective, realistic simulation of previous warm periods lends confidence to assessments of future changes. In this project, we explored how the radiative forcings and feedback mechanisms may have resulted in much warmer global and Arctic climate conditions during Earth?s Pliocene period approximately 3 million years ago. Climate models being developed for modern and applied for scenarios in the future have not previously been able to reproduce the warm conditions indicated in the data for this period. What we discovered is that the enhanced global mean warming arises from enhanced Earth System Sensitivity with equal contributions from atmospheric carbon dioxide change and changes in boundary conditions - primarily from vegetation and ice sheets. Our climate model experiments also revealed that changes in paleogeography, relatively small from modern, affect the ocean circulation in the Arctic and North Atlantic, and Arctic sea ice in such a way as to enhance Arctic warming. These results highlight the importance of using past climates to inform the development of complex models such as the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2).


Last Modified: 12/26/2020
Modified by: Bette Otto-Bliesner

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