Regional temperature response to different forest development stages in Fennoscandia explored with a regional climate model ...

Several studies investigated the regional temperature effects of afforestation or deforestation, but the impacts of different forest development stages or alternative forest management received limited attention. This is mainly due to challenges in representing area-limited forest dynamics in low-re...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Huang, Bo, Li, Yan, Zhang, Xia, Tan, Chunping, Hu, Xiangping, Cherubini, Francesco
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: Freie Universität Berlin 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-43849
https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/44139
Description
Summary:Several studies investigated the regional temperature effects of afforestation or deforestation, but the impacts of different forest development stages or alternative forest management received limited attention. This is mainly due to challenges in representing area-limited forest dynamics in low-resolution climate models and the need for accurate forest parameters. This study investigates the impact of alternative forest development stages and composition on regional climate in Fennoscandia using a coupled regional climate model. By incorporating realistic and high-resolution forest maps, our modelling framework reduces biases in estimating surface temperature compared to default model runs. If today's forest composition of tree species is left to achieve a mature state (a proxy for the absence of harvesting), an annual mean reduction in 2 m air temperature is estimated, with a cooling peak in summer of -0.53 ± 0.20 °C (mean ± standard deviation) mainly induced by increased cloud cover. Conversely, ...