Lori Thompson Sentman

Developing and using comprehensive climate and biosphere models of the atmosphere-ocean-ice-land system, Earth System Models (ESMs), to identify and elucidate physical, biogeochemical and ecological mechanisms, assess and understand the predictability of the Earth system on seasonal and longer time scales, and evaluate the impact of anthropogenic activity on the Earth system. Research interests include:

• understanding the mechanistic role of past climate on global ocean circulation, climate mean state and variability, and climate-carbon cycle interactions and feedbacks to better understand and predict future climate
• evaluating the ability of the ESM to capture observed variability on multi-decadal to millennial time scales, and determining what fraction of the variability is attributable to “external” forcing and what fraction reflects purely internal variability
• assessing the impact of historical land use change on terrestrial biosphere carbon stores and fluxes
• isolating the biophysical effects of land use change on climate
• determining the sensitivity of CO₂ fertilization on climate
• evaluating of the role of secondary vegetation regrowth on the terrestrial carbon cycle
• execution, analysis and data publishing of the ESMs for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5)

• Sentman, L. T., Dunne, J. P., Stouffer, R. J., Krasting, J. P., Toggweiler, J. R., Broccoli, A. J., in press: The Mechanistic Role of the Central American Seaway in a GFDL Earth System Model. Part 1: Impacts on Global Ocean Mean State and Circulation. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. DOI:10.1029/2018PA003364. July 2018.
• Ding, Y., G. Chepurin, G. Stenchikov, A. Robock, L.T. Sentman, & J. Krasting (2014). Ocean Response to Volcanic Eruptions in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) Simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, 119(9). https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JC009780
• Dunne, J.P., J. John, E. Shevliakova, R.J. Stouffer, J.P. Krasting, S. Malyshev, P.C.D. Milly, L.T. Sentman, A. Adcroft, W.F. Cooke, K.A. Dunne, S.M. Griffies, R.W. Hallberg, M.J. Harrison, H. Levy II, A.T. Wittenberg, P. Phillipps, & N. Zadeh (2013). GFDL’s ESM2 global coupled climate-carbon Earth System Models Part II: Carbon system formulation and baseline simulation characteristics. Journal of Climate, 26, 2247–2267. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00150.1
• Dunne, J.P., J. John, A. Adcroft, S.M. Griffies, R.W. Hallberg, E. Shevliakova, R.J. Stouffer, W.F. Cooke, K.A. Dunne, M.J. Harrison, J.P. Krasting, S. Malyshev, P.C.D. Milly, P. Phillipps, L.T. Sentman, B.L. Samuels, M.J. Spelman, M. Winton, A.T. Wittenberg, & N. Zadeh (2012). GFDL’s ESM2 global coupled climate-carbon Earth System Models Part I: Physical formulation and baseline simulation characteristics. Journal of Climate, 25(19). https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00560.1
• Sentman, L.T., E. Shevliakova, R.J. Stouffer, & S. Malyshev (2011). Time scales of terrestrial carbon response related to land-use application: Implications for initializing an earth system model. Earth Interactions, 15(30). https://doi.org/10.1175/2011EI401.1
• Shevliakova, E., S.W. Pacala, S. Malyshev, P.C.D. Milly, & L.T. Sentman, J.P. Fisk, C. Wirth, & C. Crevoisier (2009). Carbon cycling under 300 years of land use change: Importance of the secondary vegetation sink. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 23, GB2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GB003176 [ Abstract PDF]

• Anderson, J.L., V. Balaji, A.J. Broccoli, W.F. Cooke, T.L. Delworth, K.W. Dixon, et al. (2004). The New GFDL global atmosphere and land model AM2-LM2: Evaluation with prescribed SST simulations. Journal of Climate, 17(24), 4641-4673.