[MCN] Confirmed: Forest planners need to look offshore, to the oceans' heat

[Lance Olsen]

Scientific Reports. Published online. 26 May 2017

Decadal Variations in Eastern Canada’s Taiga Wood Biomass Production Forced by Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions

Etienne Bouchet et al

Abstract [open access]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-02580-9 <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-02580-9>

Across Eastern Canada (EC), taiga forests represent an important carbon reservoir, but the extent to which climate variability affects this ecosystem over decades remains uncertain. …. We show that while black spruce wood biomass production is primarily governed by growing season temperatures, the Atlantic ocean conveys heat from the subtropics and influences the decadal persistence in taiga forests productivity. Indeed, we argue that 20–30 years periodicities in Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) as part of the the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) directly influence heat transfers to adjacent lands. Winter atmospheric conditions associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) might also impact EC’s taiga forests, albeit indirectly, through its effect on SSTs and sea ice conditions in surrounding seas. Our work emphasizes that taiga forests would benefit from the combined effects of a warmer atmosphere and stronger ocean-to-land heat transfers, whereas a weakening of these transfers could cancel out, for decades or longer, the positive effects of climate change on Eastern Canada’s largest ecosystem.





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"Our results indicate that future reductions in Arctic sea ice cover could significantly reduce available water in the American west...."

 Jacob O. Sewall and Lisa Cirbus Sloan. Disappearing Arctic sea ice reduces available water in the American west  GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS VOL. 31, 2004
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“Linkages between northern high-latitude climate and precipitation in the Sierra Nevada suggested here could indicate that, under conditions of continued global warming, this drought-prone region may experience a reduction in Pacific-sourced moisture.”

Jessica L. Oster et al. Late Pleistocene California droughts during deglaciation and Arctic warming. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 2009

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