Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes (original) (raw)

References

1. Bonan, G. B. Forests and climate change: forcings, feedbacks, and the climate benefits of forests. Science 320, 1444–1449 (2008)
   Article CAS ADS Google Scholar
2. Betts, R. A. Offset of the potential carbon sink from boreal forestation by decreases in surface albedo. Nature 408, 187–190 (2000)
   Article CAS ADS Google Scholar
3. Bala, G. et al. Combined climate and carbon cycle effects of large-scale deforestation. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 6550–6555 (2007)
   Article CAS ADS Google Scholar
4. Bonan, G. B. et al. Effects of boreal forest vegetation on global climate. Nature 359, 716–718 (1992)
   Article ADS Google Scholar
5. Davin, E. L. & De Noblet-Ducoudré, N. Climatic impact of global-scale deforestation: radiative versus nonradiative processes. J. Clim. 23, 97–112 (2010)
   Article ADS Google Scholar
6. Rotenberg, E. & Yakir, D. Contribution of semi-arid forests to the climate system. Science 327, 451–454 (2010)
   Article CAS ADS Google Scholar
7. Juang, J.-Y. et al. Separating the effects of albedo from eco-physiological changes on surface temperature along a successional chronosequence in the southeastern United States. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L21408 (2007)
   Article ADS Google Scholar
8. Pielke, R. A. et al. Unresolved issues with the assessment of multidecadal global land surface temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res. 112, D24S08 (2007)
   Article ADS Google Scholar
9. Baldocchi, D. et al. FLUXNET: a new tool to study the temporal and spatial variability of ecosystem-scale carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy flux densities. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 82, 2415–2434 (2001)
   Article ADS Google Scholar
10. Betts, A. K. & Ball, J. H. Albedo over the boreal forest. J. Geophys. Res. 102, D24, 28901–28909 (1997)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
11. Douville, H. & Royer, J.-F. Influence of the temperate and boreal forests on the Northern Hemisphere climate in the Meteo-France climate model. Clim. Dyn. 13, 57–74 (1997)
    Article Google Scholar
12. Snyder, P. K. et al. Evaluating the influence of different vegetation biomes on the global climate. Clim. Dyn. 23, 279–302 (2004)
    Article Google Scholar
13. Betts, R. A. et al. Biogeophysical effects of land use on climate: model simulations of radiative forcing and large-scale temperature change. Agric. For. Meteorol. 142, 216–233 (2007)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
14. von Randow, C. et al. Comparative measurements and seasonal variations in energy and carbon exchange over forest and pasture in south west Amazonia. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 78, 5–26 (2004)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
15. Pielke, R. A. & Avissar, R. Influence of landscape structure on local and regional climate. Landscape Ecol. 4, 133–155 (1990)
    Article Google Scholar
16. Hansen, J. et al. in Climate Processes and Climate Sensitivity (eds Hansen, J. E. & Takahashi, T. ) 130–163 (American Geophysical Union, 1984)
17. Goulden, M. L. et al. An eddy covariance mesonet to measure the effect of forest age on land-atmosphere exchange. Glob. Change Biol. 12, 2146–2162 (2006)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
18. Wild, M. et al. Impact of global dimming and brightening on global warming. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L04702 (2007)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
19. Easterling, D. R. et al. Maximum and minimum temperature trends for the globe. Science 277, 364–367 (1997)
    Article CAS Google Scholar
20. Mesinger, F. et al. North American regional reanalysis. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 87, 343–360 (2006)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
21. Zhou, L. et al. Spatiotemporal patterns of changes in maximum and minimum temperatures in multi-model simulations. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L02702 (2009)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
22. Mahrt, L. Surface heterogeneity and vertical structure of the boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 96, 33–62 (2000)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
23. Swann, A. L. et al. Changes in Arctic vegetation amplify high-latitude warming through the greenhouse effect. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 1295–1300 (2010)
    Article CAS ADS Google Scholar
24. Davin, E. L. et al. Impact of land cover change on surface climate: relevance of radiative forcing concept. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L13702 (2007)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
25. Zha, T. et al. Carbon sequestration in boreal jack pine stands following harvesting. Glob. Change Biol. 15, 1475–1487 (2009)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
26. Stoy, P. C. et al. Separating the effects of climate and vegetation on evapotranspiration along a successional chronosequence in the southeastern US. Glob. Change Biol. 12, 2115–2135 (2006)
    Article ADS Google Scholar
27. Anderson, R. G. & Goulden, M. L. Relationships between climate, vegetation, and energy exchange across a montane gradient. J. Geophys. Res. 116, G01026 (2011)
    ADS Google Scholar
28. Goulden, M. L. et al. Diel and seasonal patterns of tropical forest CO2 exchange. Ecol. Appl. 14, 42–54 (2004)
    Article Google Scholar
29. Sakai, R. et al. Land-use change effects on local energy, water, and carbon balances in an Amazonian agricultural field. Glob. Change Biol. 10, 895–907 (2004)
    Article ADS Google Scholar

Download references

Acknowledgements

The data collection and analysis were supported in part by grants from the US Department of Energy and by a Yale University Climate and Energy Institute grant. We thank D. Fitzjarrald and R. Sakai for providing the data for the KM77 tropical site and C. von Randow for providing the friction velocity data for FLUXNET cluster e.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA
   Xuhui Lee & Lei Zhao
2. Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, 92697, California, USA
   Michael L. Goulden
3. USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Durham, 03824, New Hampshire, USA
   David Y. Hollinger
4. Climate Research Division, Environment Canada, Saskatoon, S7N 3H5, Canada,
   Alan Barr
5. Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z4, Canada ,
   T. Andrew Black
6. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA
   Gil Bohrer
7. School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, Florida, USA
   Rosvel Bracho
8. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, 21037, Maryland, USA
   Bert Drake
9. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA
   Allen Goldstein
10. Environmental Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, 37831, Tennessee, USA
    Lianhong Gu
11. Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Science, Duke University, Durham, 27708, North Carolina, USA
    Gabriel Katul & Ram Oren
12. School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, 86011, Arizona, USA
    Thomas Kolb
13. College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, Oregon, USA
    Beverly E. Law
14. Centre d’Étude de la Forêt, Faculté de Foresterie, de Géographie et de Géomatique, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada ,
    Hank Margolis
15. NOAA/ARL/ATDD, Oak Ridge, 37830, Tennessee, USA
    Tilden Meyers
16. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA
    Russell Monson
17. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA
    William Munger & Steven Wofsy
18. Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, 95616, California, USA
    Kyaw Tha Paw U
19. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA
    Andrew D. Richardson
20. Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany ,
    Hans Peter Schmid
21. Processes Research Section, Environment Canada, Toronto, Ontario, M3H 5T4, Canada ,
    Ralf Staebler

Authors

1. Xuhui Lee
2. Michael L. Goulden
3. David Y. Hollinger
4. Alan Barr
5. T. Andrew Black
6. Gil Bohrer
7. Rosvel Bracho
8. Bert Drake
9. Allen Goldstein
10. Lianhong Gu
11. Gabriel Katul
12. Thomas Kolb
13. Beverly E. Law
14. Hank Margolis
15. Tilden Meyers
16. Russell Monson
17. William Munger
18. Ram Oren
19. Kyaw Tha Paw U
20. Andrew D. Richardson
21. Hans Peter Schmid
22. Ralf Staebler
23. Steven Wofsy
24. Lei Zhao

Contributions

X.L. developed the energy balance model, carried out the analysis and wrote the manuscript, M.L.G. and D.Y.H. contributed ideas to data analysis, M.L.G., D.Y.H., T.A.B., G.B., L.G., G.K., T.K., B.E.L., H.M., T.M., W.M., R.O., A.D.R., R.S. and S.W. contributed ideas to manuscript development, M.L.G., D.Y.H., A.B., T.A.B., G.B., R.B., B.D., A.G., L.G., G.K., T.K., B.E.L., X.L., H.M., T.M., R.M., W.M., R.O., K.T.P.U, A.D.R., H.P.S., R.S. and S.W. contributed data, and L.Z. performed the NARR data analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toXuhui Lee.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

The file contains Supplementary Text and Data, Supplementary References, Supplementary Tables 1-3 and Supplementary Figures 1-4 with legends. (PDF 445 kb)

Supplementary Data 1 (download XLS )

This file comprises: 1 Comparison between weather station and NARR screen height temperature (annual mean, Jan mean and July mean) in NARR cells in closest proximity to the station lat/long; 2 NARR diurnal temperature range for NARR cells in closest proximity to forest eddy covariance sites; 3 Summary of temperature statistics for forests and the closest matching weather stations & summary of net radiation data for the forest sites; 4 Year-by-year summary of temperature statistics for each forest/station pair; 5 Year-by-year NARR temperature data at NARR grid matching the paired weather station; 6 Data used for energy balance / factor separation analysis; 7 Data used for analysis of sensitivity to heat storage, FLUXNET cluster a. (XLS 277 kb)

Supplementary Data 2 (download TXT )

The file contains monthly temperature data for the site pairs including lapse rates derived from NARR. (TXT 29 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lee, X., Goulden, M., Hollinger, D. et al. Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes.Nature 479, 384–387 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10588

Download citation

• Received: 05 June 2011
• Accepted: 22 September 2011
• Published: 16 November 2011
• Issue date: 17 November 2011
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10588