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Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

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Fugure I.2. (a) Maximum grid coverage in dataset. Black<br />

boxes do not have five years of data per decade from 1900 to<br />

1996. (b). Observed terrestrial precipitation 1900-1996 (%<br />

deviation from 1961-1990 mean). The increasing trend is<br />

pronounced only in <strong>the</strong> first half of <strong>the</strong> century.<br />

(Hulme et al., 1998).<br />

I.C. Snow/ice cover<br />

Increasing temperatures will naturally be associated with melting of ice on mountains<br />

<strong>and</strong> in Polar Regions. It is also expected that a larger part of <strong>the</strong> precipitation will be<br />

liquid water ra<strong>the</strong>r than snow. This tendency may be counteracted by increasing<br />

precipitation as well as by changes in atmospheric or ocean circulation patterns.<br />

There are important feedbacks between changes in snow <strong>and</strong> ice cover <strong>and</strong> climate<br />

change. These feedbacks include <strong>the</strong> influence of snow <strong>and</strong> ice cover on surface<br />

albedo <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> influence of melt/freeze processes on sea surface salinity <strong>and</strong> deepwater<br />

formation.<br />

Of particular relevance to climate change is <strong>the</strong> sea-ice cover in <strong>the</strong> Arctic <strong>and</strong><br />

around <strong>the</strong> Antarctic; <strong>the</strong>se areas cover about 5% of <strong>the</strong> global surface. Satellite<br />

observations over <strong>the</strong> period 1978 to 1996 showed a decrease in sea-ice extent in<br />

<strong>the</strong> Nor<strong>the</strong>rn Hemisphere of –2.8±0.3% per decade. The coverage of earlier data is<br />

incomplete, but <strong>the</strong>y suggest that <strong>the</strong> decline in Arctic ice-cover was not pronounced<br />

during <strong>the</strong> first half of <strong>the</strong> 20 th century. The recent decrease in ice-cover is consistent<br />

with observed Arctic temperature changes. Recent observations have also indicated<br />

a reduction in <strong>the</strong> thickness of <strong>the</strong> Arctic sea-ice. In <strong>the</strong> Antarctic, five ice shelves<br />

have retreated during <strong>the</strong> last century; recently (1995) <strong>the</strong> collapse of <strong>the</strong> Prince<br />

Gustav <strong>and</strong> parts of <strong>the</strong> Larsen ice shelves were reported. However, satellite<br />

13

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