Collaborative Research: Understanding Congo Rainfall Variability and Trends

合作研究：了解刚果降雨变化和趋势

• 批准号: 1535426
• 负责人: Liming Zhou
• 金额: $ 61.58万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Albany
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2021-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1535426&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; Congo; Rainfall

Central African forests, the driest and second largest on Earth, have experienced a long-term drying trend. A recent study detected a widespread decline in forest photosynthetic capacity over the Congo Basin and attributed this large-scale decline, at least partially, to this drying trend. Persistent drought in the region could alter the Congolese forest composition and structure in a manner that might favor the spread of drought tolerant species and thus impact biodiversity, carbon storage, and the global water cycle. Understanding the nature and cause of this drought and assessing its impacts on the forests are of significant societal, environmental, and economic importance. Understanding of climatic variability in the Congo basin is greatly hindered by a lack of observations and resources due to political, economic and historical factors. Under this project, a combination of observational and modeling studies will be undertaken to investigate the nature and cause of the Congo rainfall variability in the 20th century. The role of global sea surface temperatures will be examined. For the observational component, observations and reanalysis data will be utilized to identify major patterns and drivers of the variability. For the modeling component, the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) simulations and idealized climate model simulations will be examined to investigate the physical mechanisms for the Congo drought. The relative contribution of anthropogenic versus natural forcing on the observed rainfall decadal variability over the Congo Basin will be investigated.

非洲中部的森林是地球上最干燥的第二大森林，经历了长期的干燥趋势。最近的一项研究发现，刚果盆地森林光合能力普遍下降，并将这种大规模下降至少部分归因于这种干旱趋势。该地区的持续干旱可能会改变刚果森林的组成和结构，可能有利于耐旱物种的传播，从而影响生物多样性，碳储存和全球水循环。了解这场干旱的性质和原因并评估其对森林的影响具有重大的社会、环境和经济意义。由于政治、经济和历史因素，观测和资源的缺乏极大地阻碍了对刚果盆地气候变化的了解。在该项目下，将进行观测和模拟研究相结合的研究，以调查世纪刚果降雨量变化的性质和原因。将研究全球海洋表面温度的作用。对于观测部分，将利用观测和再分析数据来确定变异性的主要模式和驱动因素。在模拟部分，将审查耦合模式相互比较项目（CMIP 5）模拟和理想化气候模式模拟，以调查刚果干旱的物理机制。将研究人为强迫与自然强迫对观测到的刚果盆地降水年代际变化的相对贡献。

项目成果

Increasing Influence of Indian Ocean Dipole on Precipitation Over Central Equatorial Africa

• DOI: 10.1029/2020gl092370
• 发表时间: 2021-04
• 期刊: Geophysical Research Letters
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Yan Jiang;Liming Zhou;P. Roundy;W. Hua;A. Raghavendra

Rising Planetary Boundary Layer Height over the Sahara Desert and Arabian Peninsula in a Warming Climate

• DOI: 10.1175/jcli-d-20-0645.1
• 发表时间: 2021-02
• 期刊: Journal of Climate
• 影响因子: 4.9
• 作者: Liming Zhou;Yuhong Tian;Nan Wei;S. Ho;Jing Li

Diurnal asymmetry of desert amplification and its possible connections to planetary boundary layer height: a case study for the Arabian Peninsula

• DOI: 10.1007/s00382-021-05634-x
• 发表时间: 2021-01
• 期刊: Climate Dynamics
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Liming Zhou