Tropical climate and vegetation cover during Heinrich event 1: Simulations with coupled climate- vegetation models Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften Dr. rer. nat. im Fachbereich 5 (Geowissenschaften) der Universität Bremen vorgelegt von Dian Noor Handiani Bremen, Oktober 2012 Erklärung Name: Dian Noor Handiani Anschrift: Woltmershauser straße 464, 28197 Bremen, Deutschland Hiermit versichere ich, dass ich 1. die Arbeit ohne unerlaubte fremde Hilfe angefertigt habe, 2. keine anderen als die von mir angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt habe und 3. die den benutzten Werken wörtlich oder inhaltlich entnommenen Stellen als solche kenntlich gemacht habe. Bremen, Oktober 2012 (Unterschrift) Gutachter Prof. Dr. Michael Schulz Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera Promotionskolloquium: 20.12.2012 Mitglieder der Kommission: Herr Prof. Dr. Michael Schulz Herr Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera Herr Prof. Dr. Gerold Wefer Frau Prof. Dr. Gesine Mollenhauer Frau Dr. Lydie Dupont Frau Annegret Krandick Table of Content Acknowledgements i Summary iii Zusammenfassung v 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation of study ………………………………………………………………… 1 1.2 Tropical climate and vegetation in the Heinrich events ……………….......... 3 1.3 Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) ………………………. 6 1.4 Research objectives ………………………………………………………………… 9 1.5 Research approach and chapter outline ………………………………………… 10 2 Methodology 11 2.1 The UVic ESCM ……………………………………………………………………. 11 2.1.1 The atmospheric model …………………………………………………….. 11 2.1.2 The ocean and sea-ice model ……………………………………………… 13 2.1.3 The land surface and dynamic vegetation models …………………….. 14 2.2 Plant functional types and biomes ………………………………………………. 15 2.3 A scheme of biome distribution estimation …………………………………….. 16 2.4 Experimental design ………………………………………………………………. 17 3 Tropical climate and vegetation changes during Heinrich event 1: 19 a model-data comparison 3.1 Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… 19 3.2 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………. 20 3.3 Methods and experimental design ………………………………………………. 22 3.3.1 The UVic ESCM and TRIFFID DGVM …………………………………... 22 3.3.2 Simulation design and boundary conditions …………………………….. 23 3.3.3 Biome analysis from TRIFFID …………………………………………….. 24 3.4 The equilibrium simulations ……………………………………………………... 26 3.4.1 Pre-industrial simulation (PI_CNTRL) ………………………………….. 26 3.4.2 Last Glacial Maximum simulation (LGM) ………………………………. 31 3.5 Heinrich events 1 simulations …………………………………………………… 34 3.5.1 Changes in climate ………………………………………………………….. 34 3.5.2 Changes in vegetation ………………………………………………………. 38 3.5.3 Biome distribution and model-data comparison ………………………... 39 3.6 Discussion …………………………………………………………………………… 41 3.7 Summary and conclusions ………………………………………………………… 45 3.8 Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………… 47 4 Climate and vegetation changes around the Atlantic Ocean resulting 49 from changes in the meridional overturning circulation during deglaciation 4.1 Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… 49 4.2 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………. 50 4.3 Model description and experimental designs ………………………………….. 51 4.4 Results ……………………………………………………………………………….. 53 4.4.1 The variability of AMOC and physical ocean properties ………………. 53 4.4.2 Precipitation and vegetation response …………………………………… 59 4.4.3 Comparison between model and paleovegetation data ………………… 62 4.5 Discussion …………………………………………………………………………… 64 4.6 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 69 4.7 Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………… 70 5 Tropical vegetation response to Heinrich event 1 as simulated with the 71 UVic ESCM and CCSM3 5.1 Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… 71 5.2 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 72 5.3 Models and experimental design ………………………………………………… 73 5.4 Results ……………………………………………………………………………….. 76 5.4.1 Climate changes ……………………………………………………………… 76 5.4.2 The vegetation cover response …………………………………………….. 79 5.4.3 Biomes distribution comparison …………………………………………... 82 5.5 Discussion …………………………………………………………………………… 84 5.6 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 87 5.7 Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………… 88 6 Summary of the results 89 6.1 The HE1 climate and vegetation in the tropics ……………………………….. 89 6.2 The BA climate and vegetation in the region around the Atlantic Ocean … 91 6.3 A method for estimating a biome distribution from model outputs ………... 92 7 Conclusion and Outlook 93 7.1 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 93 7.2 Outlook ………………………………………………………………………………. 94 Appendix 95 Biomes estimation flow chart ……………………………………………………………….. 95 Bibliography 97 Acknowledgments The first three years of this PhD were financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the German contribution to the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (SPP 527) “Abrupt Climate Change in the African Tropics (ACCAT)” and the DFG Research Center/Excellence Cluster “The Ocean in the Earth System”, and the finishing stage of the study was funded by “The Excellent Scholarship Program by Bureau of Planning and International Cooperation”, Secretary-General of Ministry of Education and Culture, Indonesia. The work itself was carried out at the Geosciences Department of the University of Bremen, in Germany. I would like to thank the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) and the University of Bremen for giving me the opportunities to attend several international courses, workshops and conferences. I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Michael Schulz and Dr. André Paul for giving me the experience to work in such an inspiring and motivating environment, and my high appreciation to André especially for his daily patient assistance. His guidance in introducing me into the world of paleoclimate modeling enables me to finish this challenging study. I would like to thank to Dr. Lydie Dupont for her guidance through understanding the pollen proxies study and also together with André in helping me to improve my writing skill as well as to direct my research. I would thank to all the co- authors for their inputs and suggestions in writing my research papers. I also thank Xiao Zhang who simulated the HE1 experiment on the CCSM3, which are used and analysed in this study. I would also like to thank Dr. Andreas Manschke for solving quickly all computer problems, as well as Leslie Sütterlin for her great help with all administration-related work. A general thanks to all the Geomod members for their support and valuable suggestions during the group seminars and also for the many entertaining cakes and coffee breaks, especially Vidya, Ute, Heather, Claudia, Takasumi, Gerlinde, Nilima, Huadong and others. Special thanks to my officemates, Thejna, Xiao and Amanda, who have been supportive in every way. I definitely will miss you guys! A special thank to Rima, her beloved husband (Ayi) and “little” Khansa, who sincerely were willing to share their home, during my time in Bremen. General thanks to all Indonesian friends in Bremen, foremost Family Vidjaja for allowing me being part of their family and they have become my second family during my study. I want to deeply thank my long distance Indonesian friends, “Mba” Annastasia, Ulfah, Vigi, Winda, Al-azhar, Aradea and also my teacher back in Indonesia, Dr. Nining Sari Ningsih for their encouragement, endless support and friendship. Despite the distance, they were always there for me and it means a lot. Finally, I would like to express my entire gratitude to my family, who were always my best supporters through my whole life, especially my mom within these recent years, her tremendous support and faith in me were the driving forces behind everything I did. i ii Summary This study focuses on the climate and vegetation responses to abrupt climate change in the Northern Hemisphere during the last glacial period. Two abrupt climate events are explored: the abrupt cooling of the Heinrich event 1 (HE1), followed by the abrupt warming of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial (BA). These two events are simulated by perturbing the freshwater balance of the Atlantic Ocean, with the intention of altering the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and also of influencing the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and its associated rainbelt. The University of Victoria Earth System-Climate Model (UVic ESCM) is applied in these experiments. The plant-functional types and the temperature from the model output are used for calculating the biome distribution, which is then compared to the available pollen records. In addition, an inter-model comparison for the HE1 is carried out by comparing the UVic ESCM with the Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3). In the UVic ESCM, the HE1 climate is imitated by adding freshwater to the St. Lawrence River where it runs into the North Atlantic Ocean, which causes a slowdown of the AMOC. The weakening of the AMOC is followed by a cooler climate in the North Atlantic Ocean and a warmer climate in the South Atlantic Ocean. This surface temperature see-saw between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres causes a southward shift of the tropical rainbelt. The simulated drier climate north of the Equator during the HE1 event causes an increase of desertification and the retreat of broadleaf forests in West Africa and northern South America. On one hand, the model results for the HE1 event can be shown to be in agreement with the pollen records from tropical Africa and northern South America. On the other hand, the model fails to predict savannah and grassland in