UCLA

The possible regional climatic effects of land condition change in the Guizhou Karst Plateau (GKP), which has experienced serious Karst Rocky Desertification (KRD) in the past decades, were investigated in this study using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model. It was shown that when compared with validation datasets, the WRF showed a high ability to downscale NCEP-DOE Reanalysis-2, which provided the initial and lateral boundary conditions for WRF, especially for the precipitation simulation. After land degradation over the GKP, the net radiation and evaporation were reduced mainly within the desertification area, consistent with the reduction in rainfall and the increase in surface temperature there. The southwest monsoon flow from the Bay of Bengal was weakened over the adjacent area to the northeast, influencing the East Asian summer monsoon. Meanwhile, the weaker low-layer anti-cyclone and the stronger horizontal convergence enhanced vertical motion in the southeastern coastal areas. Furthermore, owing to the decreased surface heating in the degradation experiment, the lifting over the GKP and neighboring regions to the east was limited, which resulted in a reduced rainfall within the GKP and strengthened the ascending motion downstream over 114°-122° E. Such circulation differences favored an increase in moisture flux and clouds, thereby causing more precipitation in coastal areas of southeast China. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.