Abstract
A high rate of deforestation has occurred in the Maritime Continent (MC) during recent decades due to the rapid growth of the local economy. MC deforestation is known to have a considerable influence on the local climate. However, its possible teleconnections to other regions are less understood. In this study, the influence of MC deforestation on precipitation over southern China is investigated using both reanalysis data and state-of-the-art climate models. The results show that MC deforestation could strengthen the late winter and early spring precipitation decline over southern China during 1979–2019. The enhanced regional convection due to MC deforestation leads to anomalous northward shifting of the tropical meridional circulation, with the ascending branch at 0°–10° N and descending at 20°–30° N compared with climatological ascending (10° S–0°) and descending (10°–20° N) branches. Such circulation change suppresses the moisture convergence and the development of convection over southern China. Our results suggest that, in addition to the local effects of deforestation, a further investigation of the remote impacts is essential for a thorough understanding of the climate influences of ongoing MC deforestation.
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Data availability
Forest extent data are available from Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (https://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/en/). ERA-5 data are available from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-pressure-levels-monthly-means?tab=overview). GPCC data are available from (https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/GPCC/html/fulldata-monthly_v2020_doi_download.html). Precipitation data of weather stations in China is downloaded from Beijing Climate Centre (http://bcc.ncc-cma.net/) on 09-Sep-2020.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41925024), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. XDB42000000 and XDA20060502), the Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (GML2019ZD0306), Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISEE2021ZD01), and China-Sri Lanka Joint Center for Education and Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The numerical simulations were supported by the High Performance Computing Division in the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41925024), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. XDB42000000 and XDA20060502), the Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (GML2019ZD0306), Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISEE2021ZD01), and China-Sri Lanka Joint Center for Education and Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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Wei, S., Wang, X. & Xie, Q. Strengthening effect of Maritime Continent deforestation on the precipitation decline over southern China during late winter and early spring. Clim Dyn 60, 1173–1185 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06362-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06362-6