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The African contribution to the global climate-carbon cycle feedback of the 21st century
P. Friedlingstein1, P. Cadule1,2, S. L. Piao3, P. Ciais1, and S. Sitch4
1IPSL/LSCE, UMR 1572 CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, L'Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
2IPSL, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France
3Department of Ecology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
4Met Office, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research (JCHMR), Maclean Building, Wallingford, OX10 8BB, UK
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Abstract. Future climate change will have impact on global and regional terrestrial
carbon balances. The fate of African tropical forests over the 21st
century has been investigated through global coupled climate carbon cycle
model simulations. Under the SRES-A2 socio-economic CO2 emission
scenario of the IPCC, and using the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace coupled
ocean-terrestrial carbon cycle and climate model, IPSL-CM4-LOOP, we found
that the warming over African ecosystems induces a reduction of net
ecosystem productivity, making a 20% contribution to the global
climate-carbon cycle positive feedback. However, the African rainforest
ecosystem alone makes only a negligible contribution to the overall
feedback, much smaller than the one arising from the Amazon forest. This is
first because of the two times smaller area of forest in Africa, but also
because of the relatively lower local land carbon cycle sensitivity to
climate change. This beneficial role of African forests in mitigating future
climate change should be taken into account when designing forest
conservation policy.
 The requested discussion paper has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised
paper in the journal Biogeosciences (BG). You are
encouraged to refer to the final revised version. Final Revised Paper (BG) Discussion Paper (PDF, 994 KB)
Citation: Friedlingstein, P., Cadule, P., Piao, S. L., Ciais, P., and Sitch, S.: The African contribution to the global climate-carbon cycle feedback of the 21st century, Biogeosciences Discuss., 5, 4847-4866, doi:10.5194/bgd-5-4847-2008, 2008. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
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