The land ecosystems in northern high latitudes (>45° N) occupy 22% of the global surface and store more than 1600 Pg soil organic carbon. Warming in this region has been documented during the past decades. Warming-induced changes in regional carbon dynamics are expected to loom large in the global carbon cycle and exert large feedbacks to the global climate system. Numerous Earth System Models have been widely used to quantify the response of terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics to climatic changes. However, predictions of terrestrial ecosystem carbon responses to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and climate change is still uncertain due to model limitations. The limitations include relatively low levels of representation of ecosystem processes that determine the exchanges of water, energy, and carbon between land ecosystems and the atmosphere and omitting some key biogeochemical mechanisms. To improve model realism and provide a better projection of the Arctic carbon dynamics, this dissertation developed three new versions of a process-based biogeochemistry models that involve more fundamental processes of terrestrial ecosystems. First, microbial dynamics and enzyme kinetics that catalyze soil carbon decomposition have been incorporated into the extant terrestrial ecosystem model TEM to remedy the inadequate representation of soil decomposition process. Furthermore, a vital microbial life-history trait, microbial dormancy, has been implemented into previous microbial-based model to consider the impacts of microbial dormancy in modeling. Additionally, the role of moss in the Arctic terrestrial ecosystem carbon quantification was also demonstrated by incorporating moss and higher plant interactions in modelling.

Surface gravity waves alter the turbulence of the bottom atmosphere and the upper ocean. Accordingly, they can affect momentum flux, heat fluxes, gas exchange and atmospheric mixing. However, in most state-of-the-art Earth System Models (ESMs), surface wave influences are not fully considered or even included. Here, applying surface wave influences into ESMs is investigated from different aspects. Tuning parameterisations for including instantaneous wave influences has difficulties to capture wave influences. Increasing the horizontal resolution of models intensifies storm simulations for both atmosphere-wave coupled (considering the influence of instantaneous wave-induced stress) and stand-alone atmospheric models. However, coupled models are more sensitive to the horizontal resolution than stand-alone atmospheric models. Under high winds, wave states have a big impact on the sea spray generation. Introducing a wave-state-dependent sea spray generation function and Charnock coefficient into a wind stress parameterisation improves the model performance concerning wind speed (intensifies storms). Adding sea spray impact on heat fluxes improves the simulation results of air temperature. Adding sea spray impact both on the wind stress and heat fluxes results in better model performance on wind speed and air temperature while compared to adding only one wave influence. Swell impact on atmospheric turbulence closure schemes should be taken into account through three terms: the atmospheric mixing length scale, the swell-induced momentum flux at the surface, and the profile of swell-induced momentum flux. Introducing the swell impact on the three terms into turbulence closure schemes shows a better performance than introducing only one of the influences. Considering all surface wave impacts on the upper-ocean turbulence (wave breaking, Stokes drift interaction with the Coriolis force, Langmuir circulation, and stirring by non-breaking waves), rather than just one effect, significantly improves model performance. The non-breaking-wave-induced mixing and Langmuir circulation are the most important terms when considering the impact of waves on upper-ocean mixing. Accurate climate simulations from ESMs are very important references for social and biological systems to adapt the climate change. Comparing simulation results with measurements shows that adding surface wave influences improves model performance. Thus, an accurate description of all important wave impact processes should be correctly represented in ESMs, which are important tools to describe climate and weather. Reducing the uncertainties of simulation results from ESMs through introducing surface gravity wave influences is necessary.

The Earth's climate system is driven by varying insolation from the Sun. The dominant variations in insolation are at 23 and 40 thousand year periods, yet for the past million years the Earth's climate has glacial cycles at approximately 100 kyr periodicity. These cycles are a coupled variation in temperature, ice volume, and atmospheric CO₂. Somehow the Earth system's collective response to 23 and 40 kyr insolation forcing produces 100 kyr glacial-interglacial cycles. Generally it has been assumed that the causative mechanisms are a combination of ice dynamics (high ice reflectivity controlling temperature) and ocean circulation (changing carbon partitioning between the deep ocean and the atmosphere, and heat transport to the poles). However, these proposed mechanisms have not yet resulted in a compelling theory for all three variations, particularly CO₂. This thesis explores the role of volcanic CO₂ emissions in glacial cycles. I calculate that glacial-driven sea level change alters the pressure on mid-ocean ridges (MORs), changing their CO₂ emissions by approximately 10%. This occurs because pressure affects the thermodynamics of melt generation. The delay between sea level change and the consequent change in MOR CO₂ emissions is several tens-of-thousands-of-years, conceptually consistent with a coupled non-linear oscillation that could disrupt glacial cycles from a 40 kyr mode to a multiple of that period. I develop an Earth system model to investigate this possibility, running for approximately one million years and explicitly calculating global temperatures, ice sheet configuration, and CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere. The model is driven by insolation, with all other components varying in response (and according to their own interactions). This model calculates that volcanism is capable of causing a transition to ̃100 kyr glacial cycles, however the required average volcanic CO₂ emissions are barely within the 95% confidence interval. Therefore it is possible for volcanic systems and glacial cycles to form a 100 kyr coupled oscillation.

Dt. Titel: Vorhersagemodelle für den Einfluss von Süßwasser Einstrom auf Salzwasser Schichten, Wanderbewegung und Lebenszyklen des Zooplankton im Arktischen Ozean: Szenarien und Trends in der Zukunft

Designing and implementing coupled Earth System Models (ESMs) is a challenge for climate scientists and software engineers alike. Coupled models incorporate two or more independent numerical models into a single application, allowing for the simulation of complex feedback effects. As ESMs increase in sophistication, incorporating higher fidelity models of geophysical processes, developers are faced with the issue of managing increasing software complexity. Recently, reusable coupling software has emerged to aid developers in building coupled models. Effective reuse of coupling infrastructure means increasing the number of coupling functions reused, minimizing code duplication, reducing the development time required to couple models, and enabling flexible composition of coupling infrastructure with existing constituent model implementations. Despite the widespread availability of software packages that provide coupling infrastructure, effective reuse of coupling technologies remains an elusive goal: coupling models is effort-intensive, often requiring weeks or months of developer time to work through implementation details, even when starting from a set of existing software components. Coupling technologies are never used in isolation: they must be integrated with multiple existing constituent models to provide their primary services, such as model-to-model data communication and transformation. Unfortunately, the high level of interdependence between coupling concerns and scientific concerns has resulted in high interdependence between the infrastructure code and the scientific code within a model’s implementation. These dependencies are a source of complexity which tends to reduce reusability of coupling infrastructure. This dissertation presents mechanisms for increasing modeler productivity based on improving reuse of coupling infrastructure and raising the level of abstraction at which modelers work. This dissertation argues that effective reuse of coupling technologies can be achieved by decomposing existing coupling technologies into a salient set of implementation-independent features required for coupling high-performance models, increasing abstraction levels at which model developers work, and facilitating integration of coupling infrastructure with constituent models via component-based modularization of coupling features. The contributions of this research include: (1) a comprehensive feature model that identifies the multi-dimensional design space of coupling technologies used in high-performance Earth System Models, (2) Cupid, a domain-specific language and compiler for specifying coupling configurations declaratively and generating their implementations automatically, and (3) Component-based Coupling Operators (CC-Ops), a modular approach to code reuse of coupling infrastructure based on component technologies for high-performance scientific settings. The Cupid domain-specific language is evaluated by specifying a coupling configuration for an example fluid dynamics model and measuring the amount of code generated by the Cupid compiler compared to a hand coded version. The CC-Op approach is evaluated by implementing several CC-Ops using an existing high-performance component framework and measuring performance in terms of scalability and overhead.

Forests affect climate by absorbing CO₂ but also by altering albedo, latent heat flux, and sensible heat flux. In this study we used the Community Earth System Model to assess the biophysical effect of North American temperate forests on climate and how this effect changes with location, tree type, and forest management. We calculated the change in annual temperature and energy balance associated with afforestation with either needle leaf evergreen trees (NET) or broadleaf deciduous trees (BDT) and between forests with high and low leaf-area indices (LAI). Afforestation from crops to forests resulted in lower albedo and higher sensible heat flux but no consistent difference in latent heat flux. Forests were consistently warmer than crops at high latitudes and colder at lower latitudes. In North America, the temperature response from afforestation shifted from warming to cooling between 34° N and 40° N for ground temperature and between 21° N and 25° N for near surface air temperature. NET tended to have lower albedo, higher sensible heat flux and warmer temperatures than BDT. The effect of tree PFT was larger than the effect of afforestation in the south and in the mid-Atlantic. Increasing LAI, a proxy for increased management intensity, caused a cooling effect in both tree types, but NET responded more strongly and albedo decreased while albedo increased for BDT. Our results show that forests' location, tree type, and management intensity can have nearly equal biophysical effects on temperature. A forest will have maximum biophysical cooling effect if it is in the south, composed of broadleaf PFT, and is managed to maximize leaf area index. / Master of Science

Do changes in how cross-equatorial energy transport is partitioned between the ocean and atmosphere impact the hemispheric climate response to forcing? To find out, we alter the cross-equatorial ocean heat transport in a state-of-the-art GCM and ascertain how changes in energy transport and its partitioning impact hemispheric climate and precipitation sensitivity following abrupt CO2-doubling. We further evaluate the applicability our results in CMIP6-class ESMs, where AMOC facilitates the northward cross-equatorial ocean heat transport. In our experiments, changes in ocean cross-equatorial energy transport trigger compensating changes in atmospheric energy transport through changes in the Hadley cells and a shift in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. However, the climate sensitivity in each hemisphere is linearly related to the ocean heat transport convergence, not atmospheric energy transport convergence, due to the impact of ocean heating on evaporation and atmospheric specific humidity. Similarly, we also find that ocean heat transport convergence controls the hemispheric precipitation sensitivity through the impact of ocean heating on surface evaporation. This relationship is also evident in CMIP6 models, where we find differences in hemispheric precipitation sensitivity to be related to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Changes in the AMOC control hemispheric differences in upper ocean heat content, which then affect how the hydrologic cycle responds to CO2 forcing in each hemisphere. These results suggest that ocean dynamics impact the hemispheric climate response to CO2 forcing, particularly how much regional precipitation changes with warming. / Graduate