This renewal is based upon the PI's previous work in examining global teleconnections driven by land cover perturbations in the tropics (much in the same vein as El Nino drives teleconnections into mid-latitudes from the tropical oceans). Previous work was based on examination of signals in three existing global climate models. The PI will extend the work into more of an earth system framework (the PI uses the term "EcoHydroClimatological"), including CO2 forcing, vegetation dynamics (specified and interactive land cover change), and the effects of model resolution/mesoscale processes. This will be done in a more focused modeling framework using the newly-developed Ocean Land Atmosphere Model (OLAM) - a telescoping climate model coupled to the Ecosystem Demography Version 2 Model (ED2) land surface model (hydrology, land-surface biophysics, vegetation dynamics and soil chemistry). Validation of the new coupled model is the primary task of this rescoped project. The broader impacts include enhanced knowledge about land surface processes and their influence on hydrology and climate. A post-doctoral researcher will be supported.
