Wetter subtropics in a warmer world: Contrasting past and future hydrological cycles.

ABSTRACT: During the warm Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, vast subtropical regions had enough precipitation to support rich vegetation and fauna. Only with global cooling and the onset of glacial cycles some 3 Mya, toward the end of the Pliocene, did the broad patterns of arid and semiarid subtropical regions become fully developed. However, current projections of future global warming caused by CO₂ rise generally suggest the intensification of dry conditions over these subtropical regions, rather than the return to a wetter state. What makes future projections different from these past warm climates? Here, we investigate this question by comparing a typical quadrupling-of-CO₂ experiment with a simulation driven by sea-surface temperatures closely resembling available reconstructi

SUBMITTER: Burls NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5724249 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature