Ocean–atmosphere interactions modulate irrigation's climate impacts

Krakauer, Nir Y.; Puma, Michael J.; Cook, Benjamin I.; Gentine, Pierre; Nazarenko, Larissa

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-863-2016

Articles | Volume 7, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-863-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-863-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 4

Research article

|

10 Nov 2016

Research article |

| 10 Nov 2016

Ocean–atmosphere interactions modulate irrigation's climate impacts

Nir Y. Krakauer, Michael J. Puma, Benjamin I. Cook, Pierre Gentine, and Larissa Nazarenko

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Final revised paper (published on 10 Nov 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 19 May 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Anonymous reviewer recommendation – “Ocean-atmosphere interactions modulate irrigation’s climate impacts”', Anonymous Referee #1, 13 Jun 2016
RC2: 'N. Y. Krakauer et al.: Ocean-atmosphere interactions modulate irrigation's climate impacts', Anonymous Referee #2, 13 Jun 2016
RC3: 'Review of esd-2016-23, by Krakauer et al.: “Ocean-atmosphere interactions modulate irrigation's climate impacts”', Anonymous Referee #3, 17 Jun 2016
RC4: 'Review of ESD-2016-23, by Krakauer et al.: “Ocean-atmosphere interactions modulate irrigation's climate impacts”', Anonymous Referee #4, 03 Jul 2016
AC1: 'Response to reviewer comments', Nir Krakauer, 05 Aug 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (11 Aug 2016) by Rui A. P. Perdigão

AR by Nir Krakauer on behalf of the Authors (15 Aug 2016) Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (18 Aug 2016) by Rui A. P. Perdigão

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (25 Aug 2016)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (28 Aug 2016)

RR by Anonymous Referee #4 (05 Sep 2016)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

General comments:
Overall, it is clear that the authors made an effort to integrate the reviewers’ comments into the revised version of the paper.
However, I still think that the manuscript would benefit if the authors would treat the interactions between the modelled components from a more physical perspective and thoroughly discuss the processes behind the numerical experiments that lead to the differences presented (as already mentioned the first review).
This is of particular importance as the journal is interdisciplinary and therefore has a readership from various disciplines (which might be different to the authors’ core expertise and not share the same background knowledge).
Especially the results section would benefit from a better physically based explanation, instead of a mere description.
E.g. P3 L41: “As expected, …”. Such statements are not helpful for the readership with various backgrounds. Please elaborate...
In addition, Figures 3 to 8 show currently the absolute change (i.e. delta_A or delta_O).
However, for the readers with different backgrounds the absolute numbers of change have little meaning. For example, it might be difficult to judge for the reader if the plotted changes in the jet stream speed are substantial differences or if the difference and hence the improvement is only marginal. I therefore suggest adding plots (maybe into the supplements) that show not the absolute change but rather the change relative to the control case. This would allow the reader to understand the quantitatively the role of the ocean-atmosphere interactions.
Finally, I would like to see the authors discussing if their model results are actually depicting what can be observed in reality or if there is also the possibility that the results could be a model artefact.

Specific comments:
The authors should add a statement on the amounts of groundwater abstracted (i.e. if the amounts of water abstractions are actually possible to be extracted (quantitatively))
P 1 Abstract L 3: ‘irrigation climate impacts’, please consider rephrasing
P2: L8: ‘… show that the responses to these LCLUC forcing are amplified …” Can the authors please elaborate on the reasons for this.
P3 Fig1: When printed on paper, it is difficult to distinguish the light yellow (little irrigation) from the white background (no irrigation). Maybe you can add grey color for no irrigation or begin the color ramp with a darker color.
Figure 4: add explanation of grey areas to captions.
Figure 3-6: I suggest revert the color scale of the Figures to match the one of Figure 8 (with negative changes to be red and positive changes to be blue, as this is more intuitive to interpret for the reader).

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by Editor) (21 Sep 2016) by Rui A. P. Perdigão

AR by Nir Krakauer on behalf of the Authors (29 Sep 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (15 Oct 2016) by Rui A. P. Perdigão

AR by Nir Krakauer on behalf of the Authors (21 Oct 2016) Manuscript

Short summary

We simulated effects of irrigation on climate with the NASA GISS global climate model. Present-day irrigation levels affected air pressures and temperatures even in non-irrigated land and ocean areas. The simulated effect was bigger and more widespread when ocean temperatures in the climate model could change, rather than being fixed. We suggest that expanding irrigation may affect global climate more than previously believed.