Jung, Gerlinde; Prange, Matthias; Schulz, Michael (2016): Model simulation output data (CCSM3) related to uplift of Africa and Himalaya/Tibet Plateau and the influence on tropical African vegetation [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.859300, Supplement to: Jung, G et al. (2016): Influence of topography on tropical African vegetation coverage. Climate Dynamics, 46(7), 2535-2549, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2716-9
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Abstract:
Hominid evolution in the late Miocene has long been hypothesized to be linked to the retreat of the tropical rainforest in Africa. One cause for the climatic and vegetation change often considered was uplift of Africa, but also uplift of the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau was suggested to have impacted rainfall distribution over Africa. Recent proxy data suggest that in East Africa open grassland habitats were available to the common ancestors of hominins and apes long before their divergence and do not find evidence for a closed rainforest in the late Miocene. We used the coupled global general circulation model CCSM3 including an interactively coupled dynamic vegetation module to investigate the impact of topography on African hydro-climate and vegetation. We performed sensitivity experiments altering elevations of the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau as well as of East and Southern Africa. The simulations confirm the dominant impact of African topography for climate and vegetation development of the African tropics. Only a weak influence of prescribed Asian uplift on African climate could be detected. The model simulations show that rainforest coverage of Central Africa is strongly determined by the presence of elevated African topography. In East Africa, despite wetter conditions with lowered African topography, the conditions were not favorable enough to maintain a closed rainforest. A discussion of the results with respect to other model studies indicates a minor importance of vegetation–atmosphere or ocean–atmosphere feedbacks and a large dependence of the simulated vegetation response on the land surface/vegetation model.
Project(s):
Comment:
The data was created by the CCSM3 model. The experiments that are considered are experiments run with
1) present.-day topography (HIGH)
2) low African topography (AF)
3) low Himalaya/Tibet Plateau (HT)
The model results included are 100 year seasonal means (atmospheric data) and annual means (vegetation). The atmospheric data was interpolated from model levels to 10 pressure levels.
Included are model data from the land surface model (CLM) and the atmosphere model CAM3.0 including the following variables:
-vegetation coverage
-horizontal and vertical wind velocities
-precipitation
-humidity
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | File content | Content | Jung, Gerlinde | |||
| 2 | File name | File name | Jung, Gerlinde | |||
| 3 | File format | File format | Jung, Gerlinde | |||
| 4 | File size | File size | kByte | Jung, Gerlinde | ||
| 5 | Uniform resource locator/link to model result file | URL model | Jung, Gerlinde |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
50 data points