Nature Communications (Oct 2017)

The impact of anthropogenic land use and land cover change on regional climate extremes

  • Kirsten L. Findell,
  • Alexis Berg,
  • Pierre Gentine,
  • John P. Krasting,
  • Benjamin R. Lintner,
  • Sergey Malyshev,
  • Joseph A. Santanello,
  • Elena Shevliakova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01038-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

Read online

Land use and land cover change has led to more frequent hot, dry summers in parts of the mid-latitudes. Here the authors use an Earth system model to show that regions converted to crops and pastures experience hot, dry summers 2 to 4 times more frequently than they would if native forests had remained.