Michael Notaro

Associate Scientist
PhD, 2002, State Univ. of New York at Albany

Center for Climatic Research
1103 Atmospheric, Oceanic & Space Science Bldg.
1225 W. Dayton St.
Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1695

Phone: (608) 261-1503
Fax: (608) 263-4190
Email: mnotaro@wisc.edu


Education

Ph.D in Atmospheric Science, State University of New York at Albany, 1998-2002
M.S. in Atmospheric Science, State University of New York at Albany, 1995-1998
B.S. in Atmospheric Science, State University of New York at Albany, 1992-1995

Experience

Associate Scientist, Center for Climatic Research, UW-Madison (2008-present)
Assistant Scientist, Center for Climatic Research, UW-Madison (2005-2008)
Research Associate, Center for Climatic Research, UW-Madison (2002-2004)
Research Assistant, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, SUNY-Albany (1995-2002)
Teaching Assistant, Dep't of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, SUNY-Albany (1995,1997)

Research Interests

While I was trained as an atmospheric scientist at the State University of New York at Albany, I have broadened my area of research since arriving at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to include vegetation-climate interactions. The following outlines some of the topics I have explored.

-Regional climate modeling: 1) Impact of the PNA pattern on the regional winter climate of the Northeast United States using SUNYA-RCM, 2) Changes in the frequency of heavy lake effect snowstorms across the Great Lakes Basin using ICTP RegCM3.

-Trends and variability in North American cold surges

-Severe weather and storm chasing

-Modeling of climate change and ecological impacts (including abrupt vegetation responses) using coupled climate models and offline vegetation models

-Land surface feedbacks, both from soil moisture in the IPCC AR4 models and vegetation in the fully coupled climate models, FOAM-LPJ and CCSM2/3

-Vegetation feedbacks, both using statistical approaches on observations and climate models and dynamically using initial value ensemble experiments, with focus on North America, the Eurasian boreal forest, and North Africa during 6K and 0K

-The seasonal cycle of vegetation, climate, and hydrology in the Southwest US using observations, remote sensing, and a dynamic global vegetation model

-Impact of climate change on vegetation and fire in the Southwest United States, using the LPJ vegetation model and by remapping climate envelopes of specific plant species

-Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts: Assessing future Wisconsin climate change and potential impacts

Current Funding

DOE NICCR, "Ecosystem response to future climate change and the impact of vegetation feedbacks in the Southwest United States," PI: Michael Notaro

www.climate.nau.edu/index.html

NOAA CPPA, "Impact of Vegetation on North American Climate," PI: Michael Notaro

NOAA CCDD, "Observed and Simulated Trends in Heavy Lake Effect Snow Events Across the Great Lakes Basin," PI: Michael Notaro

Focus on Energy, "Climate Change in Wisconsin," PI: Dan Vimont

Focus on Energy, "Identifying Climate Analogs and Potential Shifts in Forest Composition and Extent for Southern Wisconsin Under 21st Century Climate Change Scenarios," PI: Jack Williams

Selected Publications

Some of these can be downloaded here.

Notaro, M., Z. Liu, R. G. Gallimore, J. W. Williams, and D. Gutzler, 2009: The complex ecohydrology seasonal cycle of the Southwest United States. Global Change Biology, in review.

Liu, Z., M. Notaro, J. P. Argenti, and R. G. Gallimore, 2009: Synergistic vegetation-soil feedback on subtropical hydrology. Global Change Biology, in review.

Notaro, M., Y. Wang, Z. Liu, R. Gallimore, and S. Levis, 2008: Combined statistical and dynamical assessment of simulated vegetation-rainfall interactions in North Africa during the mid-Holocene. Global Change Biology, 14, 347-368.

Notaro, M., and Z. Liu, 2008: Joint statistical and dynamical assessment of simulated vegetation feedbacks on climate over the boreal forests. Climate Dynamics, 31, 691-712.

Notaro, M., 2008: Statistical identification of global hotspots in soil moisture feedbacks among IPCC AR4 models. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, D09101, doi: 10.1029/2007JD009199.

Notaro, M., 2008: Response of the mean global vegetation distribution to interannual climate variability. Climate Dynamics, 30, 845-854, doi:1007/s00382-007-0329-7.

Notaro, M., S. Vavrus, and Z. Liu, 2007: Global vegetation and climate change due to future increases in CO2 as projected by a fully coupled model with dynamic vegetation. J. Climate, 20, 70-90.

Notaro, M., and Z. Liu, 2007: Potential impact of the Eurasian boreal forest on North Pacific climate variability. J. Climate, 20, 981-992.

Liu, Z., Y. Wang, R. Gallimore, F. Gasse, T. Johnson, P. deMenocal, J. Adkins, M. Notaro, I. C. Prentice, J. Kutzbach, R. Jacob, P. Behling, L. Wang, and E. Ong, 2007: Simulating the transient evolution and abrupt change of North Africa atmosphere-ocean-terrestrial ecosystem in the Holocene. J. Quaternary Science, 26, 1818-1837.

Wang, Y., M. Notaro, Z. Liu, R. Gallimore, S. Levis, and J.E. Kutzbach, 2008: Detecting vegetation-precipitation feedbacks in mid-Holocene North Africa from two climate models. Climate of the Past, 3, 961-975. CCR #922.

Gallimore, R., S. Levis, and M. Notaro, 2007: Multi-decadal episodes of expanded vegetation in mid-Holocene North Africa: Results from two coupled global climate/vegetation models. Climate Dynamics, submitted.

Notaro, M., Z. Liu, and J. W. Williams, 2006: Observed vegetation-climate feedbacks in the United States. J. Climate, 19 (5), 763-786.

Notaro, M., W.-C. Wang, and W. Gong, 2006: Model and observational analysis of the Northeast’ regional winter climate and its relationship to the PNA pattern. Mon. Wea. Rev., 134, 3477-3503.

Booth, R. K., M. Notaro, S. T. Jackson, and J. E. Kutzbach, 2006: Widespread drought episodes in the western Great Lakes region during the past 2000 years: Geographic extent and potential mechanisms. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 242, 415-427.

Liu, Z., M. Notaro, J. Kutzbach, and N. Liu, 2006: An observational assessment of global vegetation-climate feedbacks. J. Climate, 19 (5), 787-814.

Vavrus, S., M. Notaro, and Z. Liu, 2006: A mechanism for abrupt climate change associated with tropical Pacific SSTs. J. Climate, 19 (2), 242-256.

Liu, Z., Y. Wang, R. Gallimore, M. Notaro, and I. C. Prentice, 2006: On the cause of abrupt vegetation collapse in North Africa during the Holocene: Climate variability vs. vegetation feedback. Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L22709, doi:10.1029/2006GL028062.

Notaro, M., Z. Liu, R. Gallimore, S. J. Vavrus, J. E. Kutzbach, I. C. Prentice, and R. L. Jacob, 2005: Simulated and observed pre-industrial to modern vegetation and climate changes. J. Climate, 18 (17), 3650-3671.

Wu, L., Z. Liu, R. Gallimore, M. Notaro, and R. Jacob, 2005: Modeling surgery: A new way toward understanding Earth climate variability. Journal of Ocean University of China, 10, 306-314.

Notaro, M., 2002: Model and observational analysis of the Northeast’ regional winter climate and its relationship to the PNA pattern. Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York at Albany.