Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

Gains and losses in forest cover have asymmetric effects on land surface temperature

Nature Climate Change volume 13, pages 776–777 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

A net-zero change in tree cover is often considered to have no impact on the biophysical effects of forests. Satellite observations now reveal an asymmetric influence of gross tree-cover gain versus loss on land surface temperature. Neglecting this influence might lead to biases in quantifying the biophysical effects of forests.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Asymmetric influence of fractional gain and loss in forest cover on LST.

References

  1. Peng, S. et al. Afforestation in China cools local land surface temperature. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 2915–2919 (2014). This paper reports the cooling effects of afforestation.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Zeng, Z. et al. Deforestation-induced warming over tropical mountain regions regulated by elevation. Nat. Geosci. 14, 23–29 (2021). This paper reports the warming effects of deforestation.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Alkama, R. & Cescatti, A. Biophysical climate impacts of recent changes in global forest cover. Science 351, 600–604 (2016). This paper reports the biophysical effects of net changes in tree cover at the fine-scale.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Xu, R. et al. Contrasting impacts of forests on cloud cover based on satellite observations. Nat. Commun. 13, 670 (2022). This paper reports the indirect biophysical effects of forests.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Zhu, L. et al. Comparable biophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks on warming from tropical moist forest degradation. Nat. Geosci. 16, 244–249 (2023). This paper reports the biophysical and biogeochemical effects of forest degradation.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Su, Y. et al. Asymmetric influence of forest cover gain and loss on land surface temperature. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01757-7 (2023).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gains and losses in forest cover have asymmetric effects on land surface temperature. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 776–777 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01758-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01758-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing