Chemistry-driven changes strongly influence climate forcing from vegetation emissions

Weber, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0643-2026, Archer-Nicholls, S., Luke Abraham, N., Matthew Shin, Y., Griffiths, P., Grosvenor, D. P., Scott, C. E. and Archibald, A. T. (2022) Chemistry-driven changes strongly influence climate forcing from vegetation emissions. Nature Communications, 13. 7202. ISSN 2041-1723 doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34944-9

Abstract/Summary

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) affect climate via changes to aerosols, aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI), ozone and methane. BVOCs exhibit dependence on climate (causing a feedback) and land use but there remains uncertainty in their net climatic impact. One factor is the description of BVOC chemistry. Here, using the earth-system model UKESM1, we quantify chemistry’s influence by comparing the response to doubling BVOC emissions in the pre-industrial with standard and state-of-science chemistry. The net forcing (feedback) is positive: ozone and methane increases and ACI changes outweigh enhanced aerosol scattering. Contrary to prior studies, the ACI response is driven by cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) reductions from suppression of gas-phase SO2 oxidation. With state-of-science chemistry the feedback is 43% smaller as lower oxidant depletion yields smaller methane increases and CDNC decreases. This illustrates chemistry’s significant influence on BVOC’s climatic impact and the more complex pathways by which BVOCs influence climate than currently recognised.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-pure-test.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/119870
Identification Number/DOI	10.1038/s41467-022-34944-9
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology Central Services
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