A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficit
<p>The response of evapotranspiration to anthropogenic warming is of critical importance for the water and carbon cycle. Contradictory conclusions about evapotranspiration changes are caused primarily by their brevity in time and sparsity in space, as well as the strong influence of internal v...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Climate of the Past |
| Online Access: | https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/20/573/2024/cp-20-573-2024.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797258487651106816 |
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| author | V. Nagavciuc V. Nagavciuc S. L. L. Michel D. F. Balting G. Helle M. Freund G. H. Schleser D. N. Steger G. Lohmann G. Lohmann M. Ionita M. Ionita M. Ionita |
| author_facet | V. Nagavciuc V. Nagavciuc S. L. L. Michel D. F. Balting G. Helle M. Freund G. H. Schleser D. N. Steger G. Lohmann G. Lohmann M. Ionita M. Ionita M. Ionita |
| author_sort | V. Nagavciuc |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>The response of evapotranspiration to anthropogenic warming is of critical importance for the water and carbon cycle. Contradictory conclusions about evapotranspiration changes are caused primarily by their brevity in time and sparsity in space, as well as the strong influence of internal variability. Here, we present the first gridded reconstruction of the summer (June, July, and August) vapor pressure deficit (VPD) for the past 4 centuries at the European level. This gridded reconstruction is based on 26 European tree ring oxygen isotope records and is obtained using a random forest approach. According to validation scores obtained with the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency, our reconstruction is robust over large parts of Europe since 1600, in particular for the westernmost and northernmost regions, where most tree ring records are located. Based on our reconstruction, we show that from the mid-1700s a trend towards higher summer VPD occurred in central Europe and the Mediterranean region that is related to a simultaneous increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation. This increasing summer VPD trend continues throughout the observational period and in recent times. Moreover, our summer VPD reconstruction helps to visualize the local and regional impacts of the current climate change, as well as to minimize statistical uncertainties of historical VPD variability. This paper provides also new insights into the relationship between summer VPD and large-scale atmospheric circulation, and we show that summer VPD has two preferred modes of variability, namely a NW–SE dipole-like mode and a N–S dipole-like mode. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary use of the data should be emphasized, as summer VPD is a crucial parameter for many climatological feedback processes in the Earth's surface system. The reconstructed summer VPD gridded data over the last 400 years are available at the following link: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5958836">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5958836</a> (Balting et al., 2022).</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T22:54:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fd87530094054c10bf32ccedaeb1b054 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1814-9324 1814-9332 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T22:54:19Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Climate of the Past |
| spelling | doaj.art-fd87530094054c10bf32ccedaeb1b0542024-03-18T09:36:08ZengCopernicus PublicationsClimate of the Past1814-93241814-93322024-03-012057359510.5194/cp-20-573-2024A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficitV. Nagavciuc0V. Nagavciuc1S. L. L. Michel2D. F. Balting3G. Helle4M. Freund5G. H. Schleser6D. N. Steger7G. Lohmann8G. Lohmann9M. Ionita10M. Ionita11M. Ionita12Paleoclimate Dynamics Group, Climate Section, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 27570 Bremerhaven, GermanyFaculty of Forestry, Ştefan cel Mare University, Suceava, 720229, RomaniaAtmospheric, Oceanic, and Planetary Physics (AOPP), Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United KingdomPaleoclimate Dynamics Group, Climate Section, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 27570 Bremerhaven, GermanySection 4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, GermanyClimate and Energy College, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, AustraliaInstitute of Bio- and Geosciences IBG-3, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52428 Jülich, GermanyDepartment of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, 4056, SwitzerlandPaleoclimate Dynamics Group, Climate Section, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 27570 Bremerhaven, GermanyPhysics Department, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, GermanyPaleoclimate Dynamics Group, Climate Section, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 27570 Bremerhaven, GermanyFaculty of Forestry, Ştefan cel Mare University, Suceava, 720229, RomaniaEmil Racovita Institute of Speleology, Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca, 400006, Romania<p>The response of evapotranspiration to anthropogenic warming is of critical importance for the water and carbon cycle. Contradictory conclusions about evapotranspiration changes are caused primarily by their brevity in time and sparsity in space, as well as the strong influence of internal variability. Here, we present the first gridded reconstruction of the summer (June, July, and August) vapor pressure deficit (VPD) for the past 4 centuries at the European level. This gridded reconstruction is based on 26 European tree ring oxygen isotope records and is obtained using a random forest approach. According to validation scores obtained with the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency, our reconstruction is robust over large parts of Europe since 1600, in particular for the westernmost and northernmost regions, where most tree ring records are located. Based on our reconstruction, we show that from the mid-1700s a trend towards higher summer VPD occurred in central Europe and the Mediterranean region that is related to a simultaneous increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation. This increasing summer VPD trend continues throughout the observational period and in recent times. Moreover, our summer VPD reconstruction helps to visualize the local and regional impacts of the current climate change, as well as to minimize statistical uncertainties of historical VPD variability. This paper provides also new insights into the relationship between summer VPD and large-scale atmospheric circulation, and we show that summer VPD has two preferred modes of variability, namely a NW–SE dipole-like mode and a N–S dipole-like mode. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary use of the data should be emphasized, as summer VPD is a crucial parameter for many climatological feedback processes in the Earth's surface system. The reconstructed summer VPD gridded data over the last 400 years are available at the following link: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5958836">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5958836</a> (Balting et al., 2022).</p>https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/20/573/2024/cp-20-573-2024.pdf |
| spellingShingle | V. Nagavciuc V. Nagavciuc S. L. L. Michel D. F. Balting G. Helle M. Freund G. H. Schleser D. N. Steger G. Lohmann G. Lohmann M. Ionita M. Ionita M. Ionita A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficit Climate of the Past |
| title | A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficit |
| title_full | A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficit |
| title_fullStr | A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficit |
| title_full_unstemmed | A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficit |
| title_short | A past and present perspective on the European summer vapor pressure deficit |
| title_sort | past and present perspective on the european summer vapor pressure deficit |
| url | https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/20/573/2024/cp-20-573-2024.pdf |
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