African hydroclimate during the early Eocene from the DeepMIP simulations
African hydroclimate during the early Eocene from the DeepMIP simulations
The early Eocene (∼56–48 Myr ago) is characterized by high CO2 estimates (1,200–2,500 ppmv) and elevated global temperatures (∼10°C–16°C higher than modern). However, the response of the hydrological cycle during the early Eocene is poorly constrained, especially in regions with sparse data coverage (e.g., Africa). Here, we present a study of African hydroclimate during the early Eocene, as simulated by an ensemble of state-of-the-art climate models in the Deep-time Model Intercomparison Project (DeepMIP). A comparison between the DeepMIP pre-industrial simulations and modern observations suggests that model biases are model- and geographically dependent, however, these biases are reduced in the model ensemble mean. A comparison between the Eocene simulations and the pre-industrial suggests that there is no obvious wetting or drying trend as the CO2 increases. The results suggest that changes to the land sea mask (relative to modern) in the models may be responsible for the simulated increases in precipitation to the north of Eocene Africa. There is an increase in precipitation over equatorial and West Africa and associated drying over northern Africa as CO2 rises. There are also important dynamical changes, with evidence that anticyclonic low-level circulation is replaced by increased south-westerly flow at high CO2 levels. Lastly, a model-data comparison using newly compiled quantitative climate estimates from paleobotanical proxy data suggests a marginally better fit with the reconstructions at lower levels of CO2.
African precipitation, DeepMIP, arly Eocene, paleoclimate
Williams, Charles
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Lunt, Daniel J.
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Salzmann, Ulrich
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Reichgelt, Tammo
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Inglis, Gordon
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Greenwood, David R.
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Chan, Wing-Le
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Abe-Ouchi, Ayako
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Donnadieu, Yannick
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Hutchinson, David K.
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de Boer, Agatha
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Ladant, Jean-baptiste
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Morozova, Polina
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Niezgodzki, Igor
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Knorr, Gregor
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Steinig, Sebastian
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Zhang, Zhongshi
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Zhu, Jiang
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Huber, Matthew
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Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.
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10 May 2022
Williams, Charles
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Lunt, Daniel J.
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Salzmann, Ulrich
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Reichgelt, Tammo
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Inglis, Gordon
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Greenwood, David R.
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Chan, Wing-Le
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Abe-Ouchi, Ayako
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Donnadieu, Yannick
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Hutchinson, David K.
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de Boer, Agatha
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Ladant, Jean-baptiste
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Morozova, Polina
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Niezgodzki, Igor
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Knorr, Gregor
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Steinig, Sebastian
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Zhang, Zhongshi
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Zhu, Jiang
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Huber, Matthew
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Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.
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Williams, Charles, Lunt, Daniel J., Salzmann, Ulrich, Reichgelt, Tammo, Inglis, Gordon, Greenwood, David R., Chan, Wing-Le, Abe-Ouchi, Ayako, Donnadieu, Yannick, Hutchinson, David K., de Boer, Agatha, Ladant, Jean-baptiste, Morozova, Polina, Niezgodzki, Igor, Knorr, Gregor, Steinig, Sebastian, Zhang, Zhongshi, Zhu, Jiang, Huber, Matthew and Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.
(2022)
African hydroclimate during the early Eocene from the DeepMIP simulations.
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 37 (5), [e2022PA004419].
(doi:10.1029/2022PA004419).
Abstract
The early Eocene (∼56–48 Myr ago) is characterized by high CO2 estimates (1,200–2,500 ppmv) and elevated global temperatures (∼10°C–16°C higher than modern). However, the response of the hydrological cycle during the early Eocene is poorly constrained, especially in regions with sparse data coverage (e.g., Africa). Here, we present a study of African hydroclimate during the early Eocene, as simulated by an ensemble of state-of-the-art climate models in the Deep-time Model Intercomparison Project (DeepMIP). A comparison between the DeepMIP pre-industrial simulations and modern observations suggests that model biases are model- and geographically dependent, however, these biases are reduced in the model ensemble mean. A comparison between the Eocene simulations and the pre-industrial suggests that there is no obvious wetting or drying trend as the CO2 increases. The results suggest that changes to the land sea mask (relative to modern) in the models may be responsible for the simulated increases in precipitation to the north of Eocene Africa. There is an increase in precipitation over equatorial and West Africa and associated drying over northern Africa as CO2 rises. There are also important dynamical changes, with evidence that anticyclonic low-level circulation is replaced by increased south-westerly flow at high CO2 levels. Lastly, a model-data comparison using newly compiled quantitative climate estimates from paleobotanical proxy data suggests a marginally better fit with the reconstructions at lower levels of CO2.
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Paleoceanog and Paleoclimatol - 2022 - Williams - African Hydroclimate During the Early Eocene From the DeepMIP Simulations
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williams_africa_paper_revised_tidy_v2
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Accepted/In Press date: 26 April 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 May 2022
Published date: 10 May 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
CJRW acknowledges the financial support of the UK Natural Environment Research Council funded SWEET project (Super‐Warm Early Eocene Temperatures), and that of the European Research Council. WLC and AAO acknowledge funding from JSPS KAKENHI and MEXT KAKENHI, and are grateful to JAMSTEC for use of the Earth Simulator. The numerical simulations performed by DKH and AMB used resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at the National Supercomputer Centre (NSC), partially funded by the Swedish Research Council. YD and JBL thank GENCI for providing access to the HPC resources of TGCC. PAM thanks Evgeny Volodin and INM RAS for the help with INMCM simulations. GK acknowledges financial support by PACES through the Helmholtz association and the computing center of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven and the DKRZ in Hamburg (Germany) for computational resources, infrastructure, and support. JZ and BLOB acknowledge support from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation. U.S. acknowledges funding from the Natural Environment Research Council. DRG acknowledges funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada. GNI acknowledges a GCRF Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship. CJRW was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council‐funded SWEET project (Grant no. NE/P01903X/1) and that of the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007‐868 2013) (ERC Grant agreement no. 340923 (TGRES)). WLC and AAO were supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant no. 17H06104) and MEXT KAKENHI (Grant no. 17H06323). AMB and DKH were partially funded by the Swedish Research Council through Grant agreement no. 2016‐03912 and 2020‐04791, and DKH also acknowledges the support of FORMAS Grant 2018‐01621 and Australian Research Council Grant DE220100279. The GFDL simulations were performed at NSC, partially funded by the Swedish Research Council through Grant agreement no. 2018‐05973. YD and JBL were supported by GENCI under allocation no. 2019‐A0050102212. PAM was supported by the state assignment project no. АААА‐А19‐119022190173‐2 (FMGE‐2019‐0009). JZ and BLOB were supported by the National Science Foundation under cooperative agreement no. 1852977. U.S. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Grant NE/P019137/1). DRG was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (Grant no. 2016‐04337). GNI was supported by a GCRF Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (DHF\R1\191178). MH acknowledges support from NSF OPP 1842059.
Funding Information:
CJRW acknowledges the financial support of the UK Natural Environment Research Council funded SWEET project (Super-Warm Early Eocene Temperatures), and that of the European Research Council. WLC and AAO acknowledge funding from JSPS KAKENHI and MEXT KAKENHI, and are grateful to JAMSTEC for use of the Earth Simulator. The numerical simulations performed by DKH and AMB used resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at the National Supercomputer Centre (NSC), partially funded by the Swedish Research Council. YD and JBL thank GENCI for providing access to the HPC resources of TGCC. PAM thanks Evgeny Volodin and INM RAS for the help with INMCM simulations. GK acknowledges financial support by PACES through the Helmholtz association and the computing center of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven and the DKRZ in Hamburg (Germany) for computational resources, infrastructure, and support. JZ and BLOB acknowledge support from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation. U.S. acknowledges funding from the Natural Environment Research Council. DRG acknowledges funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada. GNI acknowledges a GCRF Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship. CJRW was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council-funded SWEET project (Grant no. NE/P01903X/1) and that of the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007-868 2013) (ERC Grant agreement no. 340923 (TGRES)). WLC and AAO were supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant no. 17H06104) and MEXT KAKENHI (Grant no. 17H06323). AMB and DKH were partially funded by the Swedish Research Council through Grant agreement no. 2016-03912 and 2020-04791, and DKH also acknowledges the support of FORMAS Grant 2018-01621 and Australian Research Council Grant DE220100279. The GFDL simulations were performed at NSC, partially funded by the Swedish Research Council through Grant agreement no. 2018-05973. YD and JBL were supported by GENCI under allocation no. 2019-A0050102212. PAM was supported by the state assignment project no. АААА-А19-119022190173-2 (FMGE-2019-0009). JZ and BLOB were supported by the National Science Foundation under cooperative agreement no. 1852977. U.S. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Grant NE/P019137/1). DRG was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (Grant no. 2016-04337). GNI was supported by a GCRF Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (DHF\R1\191178). MH acknowledges support from NSF OPP 1842059.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022. The Authors.
Keywords:
African precipitation, DeepMIP, arly Eocene, paleoclimate
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 457539
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/457539
ISSN: 2572-4525
PURE UUID: 966a9c94-8e80-4243-ab54-6eed9d411ce7
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Date deposited: 10 Jun 2022 16:41
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:00
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Contributors
Author:
Charles Williams
Author:
Daniel J. Lunt
Author:
Ulrich Salzmann
Author:
Tammo Reichgelt
Author:
David R. Greenwood
Author:
Wing-Le Chan
Author:
Ayako Abe-Ouchi
Author:
Yannick Donnadieu
Author:
David K. Hutchinson
Author:
Agatha de Boer
Author:
Jean-baptiste Ladant
Author:
Polina Morozova
Author:
Igor Niezgodzki
Author:
Gregor Knorr
Author:
Sebastian Steinig
Author:
Zhongshi Zhang
Author:
Jiang Zhu
Author:
Matthew Huber
Author:
Bette L. Otto-Bliesner
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