Impact of vegetation removal and soil aridation on diurnal temperature range in a semiarid region: Application to the Sahel Export

@article{citeulike:1938878, abstract = {Increased clouds and precipitation normally decrease the diurnal temperature range (DTR) and thus have commonly been offered as explanation for the trend of reduced DTR observed for many land areas over the last several decades. Observations show, however, that the DTR was reduced most in dry regions and especially in the West African Sahel during a period of unprecedented drought. Furthermore, the negative trend of DTR in the Sahel appears to have stopped and may have reversed after the rainfall began to recover. This study develops a hypothesis with climate model sensitivity studies showing that either a reduction in vegetation cover or a reduction in soil emissivity would reduce the DTR by increasing nighttime temperature through increased soil heating and reduced outgoing longwave radiation. Consistent with empirical analyses of observational data, our results suggest that vegetation removal and soil aridation would act to reduce the DTR during periods of drought and human mismanagement over semiarid regions such as the Sahel and to increase the DTR with more rainfall and better human management. Other mechanisms with similar effects on surface energy balance, such as increased nighttime downward longwave radiation due to increased greenhouse gases, aerosols, and clouds, would also be expected to have a larger impact on DTR over drier regions. 10.1073/pnas.0700290104}, author = {Zhou, Liming and Dickinson, Robert E. and Tian, Yuhong and Vose, Russell S. and Dai, Yongjiu}, citeulike-article-id = {1938878}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0700290104}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/104/46/17937}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17986620}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=17986620}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0700290104}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, keywords = {africa, climate, diurnal, drought, land-use, precipitation, regional, temperature, weather}, month = {November}, number = {46}, pages = {17937--17942}, posted-at = {2007-11-19 19:00:57}, priority = {2}, title = {Impact of vegetation removal and soil aridation on diurnal temperature range in a semiarid region: Application to the Sahel}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0700290104}, volume = {104}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1938878 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1938878 N2 - Increased clouds and precipitation normally decrease the diurnal temperature range (DTR) and thus have commonly been offered as explanation for the trend of reduced DTR observed for many land areas over the last several decades. Observations show, however, that the DTR was reduced most in dry regions and especially in the West African Sahel during a period of unprecedented drought. Furthermore, the negative trend of DTR in the Sahel appears to have stopped and may have reversed after the rainfall began to recover. This study develops a hypothesis with climate model sensitivity studies showing that either a reduction in vegetation cover or a reduction in soil emissivity would reduce the DTR by increasing nighttime temperature through increased soil heating and reduced outgoing longwave radiation. Consistent with empirical analyses of observational data, our results suggest that vegetation removal and soil aridation would act to reduce the DTR during periods of drought and human mismanagement over semiarid regions such as the Sahel and to increase the DTR with more rainfall and better human management. Other mechanisms with similar effects on surface energy balance, such as increased nighttime downward longwave radiation due to increased greenhouse gases, aerosols, and clouds, would also be expected to have a larger impact on DTR over drier regions. 10.1073/pnas.0700290104 IS - 46 JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences EP - 17942 TI - Impact of vegetation removal and soil aridation on diurnal temperature range in a semiarid region: Application to the Sahel VL - 104 SP - 17937 KW - africa KW - climate KW - diurnal KW - drought KW - land-use KW - precipitation KW - regional KW - temperature KW - weather AU - Zhou, Liming AU - Dickinson, Robert AU - Tian, Yuhong AU - Vose, Russell AU - Dai, Yongjiu PY - 2007/11/13/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0700290104 ER -