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Northern Hemisphere Land Monsoon Precipitation Increased by the Green Sahara During Middle Holocene
Author(s) -
Sun Weiyi,
Wang Bin,
Zhang Qiong,
Pausata Francesco S. R.,
Chen Deliang,
Lu Guonian,
Yan Mi,
Ning Liang,
Liu Jian
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl082116
Subject(s) - holocene , monsoon , northern hemisphere , precipitation , climatology , vegetation (pathology) , environmental science , land cover , geology , physical geography , atmospheric sciences , land use , oceanography , geography , ecology , meteorology , medicine , pathology , biology
Changes in land cover and dust emission may significantly influence the Northern Hemisphere land monsoon precipitation (NHLMP), but observations are too short to fully evaluate their impacts. The “Green Sahara” during the mid‐Holocene (6,000 years BP) provides an opportunity to unravel these mechanisms. Here we show that during the mid‐Holocene, most of the NHLMP changes revealed by proxy data are reproduced by the Earth System model results when the Saharan vegetation cover and dust reduction are taken into consideration. The simulated NHLMP significantly increases by 33.10% under the effect of the Green Sahara. The North African monsoon precipitation increases most significantly. Additionally, the Saharan vegetation (dust reduction under vegetated Sahara) alone remotely intensifies the Asian (North American) monsoon precipitation through large‐scale atmospheric circulation changes. These findings imply that future variations in land cover and dust emissions may appreciably influence the NHLMP.