Dissertation Title:

The Role of Large-Scale Land-Use Change on the Global Climate; Response and Sensitivity to Amazon Deforestation

Dissertation Abstract:

Large-scale land-use change, such as Amazon deforestation, can have a significant local affect on the climate and has the potential to impact the global climate system. Previous modeling studies have shown non-local responses due to Amazon deforestation, however, a common flaw in these studies is using prescribed ocean conditions, which can dampen the global response. I am proposing a set of fully coupled modeling simulations to determine the responses and sensitivities to Amazon deforestation, both locally and globally. In addition to developing a realistic tropical crop vegetation type for the Community Land Model version 4, results from previous offline simulations show an unrealistic response in leaf area index, which affects numerous aspects of the climate.

Advised by Paul Dirmeyer