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Patch aggregation trends of the global climate landscape under future global warming scenario
Author(s) -
Lu Hongwei,
Guan Yanlong,
He Li,
Adhikari Hari,
Pellikka Petri,
Heiskanen Janne,
Maeda Eduardo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/joc.6358
Subject(s) - climatology , temperate climate , climate change , global warming , climate model , arid , environmental science , climate pattern , geography , physical geography , ecology , geology , biology
The global temperature has increased approximately 0.9°C over the past 50 years and is projected to continue to increase. Many efforts have been taken to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of climate classification zones in response to the rising temperature. However, the changing dynamics of the spatial climate patterns remain poorly understood. It is thus desired that the unobserved characteristics of the global climate patterns, such as aggregation and subdivision, are explored from the landscape perspective. Here, we demonstrate that the global climate zones have undergone a process of aggregation during the past 100 years and that this dynamic is expected to continue in the future. The climate aggregation effect is especially evident in the Arctic, Tibet, and East Africa. We find that the tropical, arid, temperate, and cold climates are aggregating while the polar climate zone exhibits subdivision. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates a clear spatial aggregation process with a latitudinal feature. We should pay enough attention to the phenomenon of patch aggregation of global climate landscape pattern, which will undoubtedly help us to deepen our understanding of global climate change and help to further explore the feedback relationship between climate and biological systems.