EGS

26th April, 2000

Paper

Interactive vegetation in the Hadley Centre GCM Richard Betts, Peter Cox and Chris Jones

Abstract

Interactive vegetation in the Hadley Centre GCM

Richard Betts, Peter Cox and Chris Jones

A Dynamic Global Vegetation Model has been embedded within the Hadley Centre General Circulation Model, to allow climate change simulations to include feedbacks from changes in land surface properties and carbon fluxes. Simulations driven with pre-industrial greenhouse gas concentrations successfully reproduce the observed global vegetation patterns, and the seasonal cycle of carbon uptake and release by the terrestrial biosphere corresponds well with that inferred from measurements of atmospheric CO2. Coupled simulations forced by increased CO2 show vegetation-climate feedbacks to be important.