• Institution: P4921809
  • Subscribe to PNAS
  • Sign up for PNAS eTOC alerts

Catalogue of abrupt shifts in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate models

  1. Didier Swingedouwh
  1. aResearch and Development, Weather and Climate Modeling, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, 3730AE De Bilt, The Netherlands;
  2. bNational Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, United Kingdom;
  3. cDepartment of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, 6708PB Wageningen, The Netherlands;
  4. dThe Land in the Earth System, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, 20146 Hamburg, Germany;
  5. eCenter for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Universität Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany;
  6. fClimate System Group, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, United Kingdom;
  7. gLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnnement, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, Paris, France;
  8. hEnvironnements et Paleoenvironnements Oceaniques et Continentaux, University of Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France

  1. Edited by Mark H. Thiemens, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved September 11, 2015 (received for review June 11, 2015)

Significance

One of the most concerning consequences of human-induced increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations is the potential for rapid regional transitions in the climate system. Yet, despite much public awareness of how “tipping points” may be crossed, little information is available as to exactly what may be expected in the coming centuries. We assess all Earth System Models underpinning the recent 5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and systematically search for evidence of abrupt changes. We do find abrupt changes in sea ice, oceanic flows, land ice, and terrestrial ecosystem response, although with little consistency among the models. A particularly large number is projected for warming levels below 2°. We discuss mechanisms and include methods to objectively classify abrupt climate change.

Abstract

Abrupt transitions of regional climate in response to the gradual rise in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are notoriously difficult to foresee. However, such events could be particularly challenging in view of the capacity required for society and ecosystems to adapt to them. We present, to our knowledge, the first systematic screening of the massive climate model ensemble informing the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, and reveal evidence of 37 forced regional abrupt changes in the ocean, sea ice, snow cover, permafrost, and terrestrial biosphere that arise after a certain global temperature increase. Eighteen out of 37 events occur for global warming levels of less than 2°, a threshold sometimes presented as a safe limit. Although most models predict one or more such events, any specific occurrence typically appears in only a few models. We find no compelling evidence for a general relation between the overall number of abrupt shifts and the level of global warming. However, we do note that abrupt changes in ocean circulation occur more often for moderate warming (less than 2°), whereas over land they occur more often for warming larger than 2°. Using a basic proportion test, however, we find that the number of abrupt shifts identified in Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenarios is significantly larger than in other scenarios of lower radiative forcing. This suggests the potential for a gradual trend of destabilization of the climate with respect to such shifts, due to increasing global mean temperature change.

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed: Email: S.S.Drijfhout{at}soton.ac.uk.

  • Author contributions: S.D. designed research; S.D., S.B., V.B., G.S., and D.S. performed research; S.D., S.B., C.B., V.B., M.C., C.H., M.S., G.S., and D.S. analyzed data; and S.D., S.B., C.B., V.B., M.C., C.H., M.S., G.S., and D.S. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • Data deposition: All data are freely downloadable from cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/cmip5/data_portal.html.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1511451112/-/DCSupplemental.

Online Impact