Research project Tropical precipitation tipping-points (TPTP)
Previously proposed tipping-points that would lead to the tropical rain forest systems’ collapse involve positive feedback processes. Yet, the Amazon rain forest has persisted despite higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the past.
The Amazon rain forest has been surprisingly resilient to even very large climate changes in the past. The TPTP project will examine whether other negative feedback mechanisms, which are not included in the tipping-point hypothesis, may exist.
In particular, the TPTP project aims to understand the atmospheric component of the feedback loop. Focus is on soil-moisture-precipitation feedback, and convective cloud dynamics. This will be studied in a large-scale context of internal climate variability, the Hadley and Walker circulations and global energetic constraints.
We will use observations combined with the global cloud resolving model ICON and contemporary climate models to explain and understand the observed decline of the Amazon rain forest. This project aims at achieving a better understanding of the problem of the Amazon rain forest system tipping-points under global climate change and human exploitation.
Project members
Project managers
Thorsten Mauritsen
Professor
Members
Winifred Atiah
Postdoctor
