Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes
Deforestation in mid- to high latitudes is hypothesized to have the potential to cool the Earth's surface by altering biophysical processes. In climate models of continental-scale land clearing, the cooling is triggered by increases in surface albedo and is reinforced by a land albedo-sea ice f...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt3gk68492 2023-10-25T01:43:35+02:00 Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes Lee, Xuhui Goulden, Michael L Hollinger, David Y Barr, Alan Black, T Andrew Bohrer, Gil Bracho, Rosvel Drake, Bert Goldstein, Allen Gu, Lianhong Katul, Gabriel Kolb, Thomas Law, Beverly E Margolis, Hank Meyers, Tilden Monson, Russell Munger, William Oren, Ram Paw U, Kyaw Tha Richardson, Andrew D Schmid, Hans Peter Staebler, Ralf Wofsy, Steven Zhao, Lei 384 - 387 2011-11-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gk68492 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt3gk68492 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gk68492 CC-BY Nature, vol 479, iss 7373 Earth Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Life on Land Air Altitude Atmosphere Biophysical Phenomena Canada Climate Conservation of Natural Resources Forestry Seasons Temperature Trees United States General Science & Technology article 2011 ftcdlib 2023-09-25T18:04:04Z Deforestation in mid- to high latitudes is hypothesized to have the potential to cool the Earth's surface by altering biophysical processes. In climate models of continental-scale land clearing, the cooling is triggered by increases in surface albedo and is reinforced by a land albedo-sea ice feedback. This feedback is crucial in the model predictions; without it other biophysical processes may overwhelm the albedo effect to generate warming instead. Ongoing land-use activities, such as land management for climate mitigation, are occurring at local scales (hectares) presumably too small to generate the feedback, and it is not known whether the intrinsic biophysical mechanism on its own can change the surface temperature in a consistent manner. Nor has the effect of deforestation on climate been demonstrated over large areas from direct observations. Here we show that surface air temperature is lower in open land than in nearby forested land. The effect is 0.85 ± 0.44 K (mean ± one standard deviation) northwards of 45° N and 0.21 ± 0.53 K southwards. Below 35° N there is weak evidence that deforestation leads to warming. Results are based on comparisons of temperature at forested eddy covariance towers in the USA and Canada and, as a proxy for small areas of cleared land, nearby surface weather stations. Night-time temperature changes unrelated to changes in surface albedo are an important contributor to the overall cooling effect. The observed latitudinal dependence is consistent with theoretical expectation of changes in energy loss from convection and radiation across latitudes in both the daytime and night-time phase of the diurnal cycle, the latter of which remains uncertain in climate models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice University of California: eScholarship Canada |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Earth Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Life on Land Air Altitude Atmosphere Biophysical Phenomena Canada Climate Conservation of Natural Resources Forestry Seasons Temperature Trees United States General Science & Technology |
spellingShingle |
Earth Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Life on Land Air Altitude Atmosphere Biophysical Phenomena Canada Climate Conservation of Natural Resources Forestry Seasons Temperature Trees United States General Science & Technology Lee, Xuhui Goulden, Michael L Hollinger, David Y Barr, Alan Black, T Andrew Bohrer, Gil Bracho, Rosvel Drake, Bert Goldstein, Allen Gu, Lianhong Katul, Gabriel Kolb, Thomas Law, Beverly E Margolis, Hank Meyers, Tilden Monson, Russell Munger, William Oren, Ram Paw U, Kyaw Tha Richardson, Andrew D Schmid, Hans Peter Staebler, Ralf Wofsy, Steven Zhao, Lei Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes |
topic_facet |
Earth Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Life on Land Air Altitude Atmosphere Biophysical Phenomena Canada Climate Conservation of Natural Resources Forestry Seasons Temperature Trees United States General Science & Technology |
description |
Deforestation in mid- to high latitudes is hypothesized to have the potential to cool the Earth's surface by altering biophysical processes. In climate models of continental-scale land clearing, the cooling is triggered by increases in surface albedo and is reinforced by a land albedo-sea ice feedback. This feedback is crucial in the model predictions; without it other biophysical processes may overwhelm the albedo effect to generate warming instead. Ongoing land-use activities, such as land management for climate mitigation, are occurring at local scales (hectares) presumably too small to generate the feedback, and it is not known whether the intrinsic biophysical mechanism on its own can change the surface temperature in a consistent manner. Nor has the effect of deforestation on climate been demonstrated over large areas from direct observations. Here we show that surface air temperature is lower in open land than in nearby forested land. The effect is 0.85 ± 0.44 K (mean ± one standard deviation) northwards of 45° N and 0.21 ± 0.53 K southwards. Below 35° N there is weak evidence that deforestation leads to warming. Results are based on comparisons of temperature at forested eddy covariance towers in the USA and Canada and, as a proxy for small areas of cleared land, nearby surface weather stations. Night-time temperature changes unrelated to changes in surface albedo are an important contributor to the overall cooling effect. The observed latitudinal dependence is consistent with theoretical expectation of changes in energy loss from convection and radiation across latitudes in both the daytime and night-time phase of the diurnal cycle, the latter of which remains uncertain in climate models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lee, Xuhui Goulden, Michael L Hollinger, David Y Barr, Alan Black, T Andrew Bohrer, Gil Bracho, Rosvel Drake, Bert Goldstein, Allen Gu, Lianhong Katul, Gabriel Kolb, Thomas Law, Beverly E Margolis, Hank Meyers, Tilden Monson, Russell Munger, William Oren, Ram Paw U, Kyaw Tha Richardson, Andrew D Schmid, Hans Peter Staebler, Ralf Wofsy, Steven Zhao, Lei |
author_facet |
Lee, Xuhui Goulden, Michael L Hollinger, David Y Barr, Alan Black, T Andrew Bohrer, Gil Bracho, Rosvel Drake, Bert Goldstein, Allen Gu, Lianhong Katul, Gabriel Kolb, Thomas Law, Beverly E Margolis, Hank Meyers, Tilden Monson, Russell Munger, William Oren, Ram Paw U, Kyaw Tha Richardson, Andrew D Schmid, Hans Peter Staebler, Ralf Wofsy, Steven Zhao, Lei |
author_sort |
Lee, Xuhui |
title |
Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes |
title_short |
Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes |
title_full |
Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes |
title_fullStr |
Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes |
title_sort |
observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gk68492 |
op_coverage |
384 - 387 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_source |
Nature, vol 479, iss 7373 |
op_relation |
qt3gk68492 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gk68492 |
op_rights |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1780740689561124864 |