Local temperature response to land cover and management change driven by non-radiative processes

• DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3250
• Publication Date: 2017-03-27T19:52:23Z
• Authors: Ryan M. Bright; Edouard Davin; Thomas O’Halloran; Julia Pongratz; Kaiguang Zhao; Alessandro Cescatti
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 0207 environmental engineering; 02 engineering and technology; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Following a land cover and land management change (LCMC), local surface temperature responds to both a change in available energy and a change in the way energy is redistributed by various non-radiative mechanisms. However, the extent to which non-radiative mechanisms contribute to the local direct temperature response for different types of LCMC across the world remains uncertain. Here, we combine extensive records of remote sensing and in situ observation to show that non-radiative mechanisms dominate the local response in most regions for eight of nine common LCMC perturbations. We find that forest cover gains lead to an annual cooling in all regions south of the upper conterminous United States, northern Europe, and Siberia—reinforcing the attractiveness of re-/afforestation as a local mitigation and adaptation measure in these regions. Our results affirm the importance of accounting for non-radiative mechanisms when evaluating local land-based mitigation or adaptation policies.