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Project: Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) datasets - These data have been generated as part of the internationally-coordinated Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6; see also GMD Special Issue: http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/special_issue590.html). The simulation data provides a basis for climate research designed to answer fundamental science questions and serves as resource for authors of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR6). CMIP6 is a project coordinated by the Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) as part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). Phase 6 builds on previous phases executed under the leadership of the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) and relies on the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) and the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) along with numerous related activities for implementation. The original data is hosted and partially replicated on a federated collection of data nodes, and most of the data relied on by the IPCC is being archived for long-term preservation at the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (IPCC DDC) hosted by the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ). The project includes simulations from about 120 global climate models and around 45 institutions and organizations worldwide. Summary: These data include the subset used by IPCC AR6 WGI authors of the datasets originally published in ESGF for 'CMIP6.CMIP.MOHC.HadGEM3-GC31-MM.piControl' with the full Data Reference Syntax following the template 'mip_era.activity_id.institution_id.source_id.experiment_id.member_id.table_id.variable_id.grid_label.version'. The HadGEM3-GC3.1-N216ORCA025 climate model, released in 2016, includes the following components: aerosol: UKCA-GLOMAP-mode, atmos: MetUM-HadGEM3-GA7.1 (N216; 432 x 324 longitude/latitude; 85 levels; top level 85 km), land: JULES-HadGEM3-GL7.1, ocean: NEMO-HadGEM3-GO6.0 (eORCA025 tripolar primarily 0.25 deg; 1440 x 1205 longitude/latitude; 75 levels; top grid cell 0-1 m), seaIce: CICE-HadGEM3-GSI8 (eORCA025 tripolar primarily 0.25 deg; 1440 x 1205 longitude/latitude). The model was run by the Met Office Hadley Centre, Fitzroy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, UK (MOHC) in native nominal resolutions: aerosol: 100 km, atmos: 100 km, land: 100 km, ocean: 25 km, seaIce: 25 km.

Research data and scientific software related to spatio-temporal estimations of ecological soil moisture with available data covering the whole territory of Germany and the Kellerwald National Park (Hesse). Temporal trends of modelled soil moisture for the time period 1961–2070 were statistically analyzed. Soil moisture changes (drying-out) at both national and regional levels were mapped. {"references": ["Nickel S, Schr\u00f6der W 2017. Fuzzy modelling and mapping soil moisture for observed and future periods. An alternative for dynamic modelling at the national and regional scale? Annals of Forest Science 74:71"]}

Widespread shrub encroachment is profoundly impacting the structures and functions of global drylands, and precipitation change is assumed to be one of the most critical factors affecting this phenomenon. However, there is little evidence to show how precipitation changes will affect the process. In this study, we conducted a 6-year precipitation manipulation experiment (-30%, ambient, +30%, and +50%) to investigate the effects of precipitation changes on the growth of shrubs and herbaceous plants in a shrub-encroached grassland in Inner Mongolia. We found that the increasing precipitation significantly increased the mean height, coverage, and aboveground biomass of herbaceous species, while the growth of shrub species did not exhibit a significant response to precipitation changes. With increasing precipitation, the relative coverage of shrubs decreased, while that of herbs increased. The native dominant herbaceous plant (Leymus chinensis) with more sensitive maximum photosynthetic rate to the precipitation change, showed higher photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency and water use efficiency than those of the encroached shrub species (Caragana microphylla) at high soil moisture contents, reflecting that the ecophysiological characteristics of L. chinensis might provide it a competitive advantage under increased precipitation. Our findings suggest that increasing precipitation may slow down shrub encroachment by facilitating herbaceous growth in Mongolian grasslands, and consequently affect the forage value and carbon budget in these ecosystems. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that to limit warming to 1.5 °C, Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is required. Integrated assessment models (IAMS) predict that a land area between the size of Argentina and Australia is required for bioenergy crops, a 3–7 time increase in the current bioenergy planting area globally. The authors pose the question of whether vertical farming (VF) technology can enable BECCS deployment, either via land sparing or supply. VF involves indoor controlled environment cultivation, and can increase productivity per unit land area by 5–10 times. VF is predominantly being used to grow small, high value leafy greens with rapid growth cycles. Capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and sustainability are challenges in current VF industries, and will affect the ability to utilise this technology for other crops. The authors argue that, whilst challenging, VF could help reach wider climate goals. Application of VF for bioenergy crops could be a game changer in delivering BECCS technologies and may reduce the land footprint required as well as the subsequent associated negative environmental impacts. VF bioenergy could allow us to cultivate the future demand for bioenergy for BECCS on the same, or less, land area than is currently used globally.

A new environmental ban has forced the restructure of open dumps in China since 1 July 2011. A technical process was established in this study that is feasible for the upgrade of open dumps through restructuring. The feasibility of restructuring and the benefit of greenhouse gas emission reductions were assessed according to field surveys of five landfills and four dumps in Nanjing. The results showed that the daily processing capacities of the existing landfills have been unable to meet the growth of municipal solid waste (MSW), making restructuring of the landfills imperative. According to an assessment of the technical process, only four sites in Nanjing were suitable for upgrading. Restructuring the Jiaozishan landfill effectively reduced the leachate generation rate by 5.84% under its scale when expanded by 60.7% in 2015. CO2 emissions were reduced by approximately 55,000–86,000 tons per year, in which biogas power generation replaced fossil fuels Fossil fuels accounted for the largest proportion, up to 45,000–60,000 tons. Photovoltaic power generation on the overlying land has not only reduced CO2 emissions to 26,000–30,000 tons per year but has also brought in continuing income from the sale of electricity. The funds are essential for developing countries such as China, which lack long-term financial support for landfill management after closure.

Climate change, environmental degradation, and limited resources are motivations for sustainable forest management. Forests, the most abundant renewable resource on earth, used to make a wide variety of forest-based products for human consumption. To provide a scientific measure of a product’s sustainability and environmental performance, the life cycle assessment (LCA) method is used. This article provides a comprehensive review of environmental performances of forest-based products including traditional building products, emerging (mass-timber) building products and nanomaterials using attributional LCA. Across the supply chain, the product manufacturing life-cycle stage tends to have the largest environmental impacts. However, forest management activities and logistics tend to have the greatest economic impact. In addition, environmental trade-offs exist when regulating emissions as indicated by the latest traditional wood building product LCAs. Interpretation of these LCA results can guide new product development using biomaterials, future (mass) building systems and policy-making on mitigating climate change. Key challenges include handling of uncertainties in the supply chain and complex interactions of environment, material conversion, resource use for product production and quantifying the emissions released.

To meet the increasing demands of precision agricultural and environmental management, more abundant and accurate information is needed to describe soil organic carbon (SOC) vertical variation. Based on 923 soil profiles (collected at the depths of 0–15, 15–30, 30–60, 60–90, 90–120, and 120–150 cm) in the central area of Changhua County, Taiwan, the distribution curve of the SOC content of each profile was fitted by the equal-area spline model, and it was possible to obtain the SOC content at all depths. Taking the 0–5 cm (L1), 5–10 cm (L2), and 10–15 cm (L3) sub-layers as examples, their SOC contents and stocks were compared to the mean values of the average 5-cm-thick sub-layers (Lm) derived from the value of the 0–15 cm layer. The results indicated that the SOC contents and stocks both reduced with increasing soil depths. The mean SOC contents of L1, L2, and L3 were 22.1, 21.0, and 18.7 g·kg−1, respectively, with significant variation, and the values of L2 and L3 were 5.0% and 15.4% lower than that of L1. Similarly, the mean SOC stocks were 1.29, 1.25, and 1.16 kg·m−2 of the L1, L2, and L3 layers, also with significant variation, and the values of L2 and L3 were 4.0% and 10.1% lower than that of L1. Meanwhile, it was found that the SOC content and stock of Lm were both close to the corresponding values in L2, but were significantly different to that of L1 and L3. Furthermore, the interpolation contours of the SOC contents and stocks in L1, L2, and L3 by digital soil mapping also presented regular variation with increasing soil depths, while the contours of Lm had nearly identical patterns to that of L2. The results demonstrate that the typically used mean SOC contents with certain thicknesses calculated from the sampling layer can only approximately inflect the SOC situation at intermediate depths, but the SOC content in the upper and lower parts within the sampling layer varies greatly. Therefore, the actual distribution of SOC varies gradually depending on the soil depth. This study indicates that the combination of the equal-area spline model and digital soil mapping can greatly enrich the current soil SOC database and provide more abundant and accurate SOC content and stock information for precision agricultural and environmental management based on legacy soil database.

Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) experiences a recurrent drought phenomenon. However, few studies have focused on drought monitoring in this region due to lack of ground observations. The newly released Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) with a long-term record and high resolution has a great potential for drought monitoring. Based on the assessment of CHIRPS for capturing precipitation and monitoring drought, this study aims to evaluate the drought condition in LMB by using satellite-based CHIRPS from January 1981 to July 2016. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at various time scales (1–12-month) is computed to identify and describe drought events. Results suggest that CHIRPS can properly capture the drought characteristics at various time scales with the best performance at three-month time scale. Based on high-resolution long-term CHIRPS, it is found that LMB experienced four severe droughts during the last three decades with the longest one in 1991–1994 for 38 months and the driest one in 2015–2016 with drought affected area up to 75.6%. Droughts tend to occur over the north and south part of LMB with higher frequency, and Mekong Delta seems to experience more long-term and extreme drought events. Severe droughts have significant impacts on vegetation condition.