J1.14
Impact of land use/land cover change on U. S. climate
Somnath Baidyaroy, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; and C. P. Weaver and S. W. Pacala
The Princeton University Ecosystem Dynamics (ED) model was used to develop a gridded dataset (at 1 degree resolution) of the United States landcover for 1700-1990. This dataset was validated against local observations. The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) was used to simulate the response of the climate system to the changing land cover/land use pattersn over the U. S. Preliminary investigations, comparing the climate of 1700 (pristine land cover), 1910 (maximum deforestation) and 1990 (current conditions), show that changing conditions at the land surface can have significant impacts on temperature and precipitation.
Joint Session 1, land-atmosphere interactions: Part I (Joint with the 16th Conference on Hydrology and the 13th Symposium on Global Change and Climate Variations)
Monday, 14 January 2002, 9:30 AM-4:58 PM
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