Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudes
Climate models simulating continental scale deforestation suggest a warming effect of land clearing on the surface air temperature in the tropical zone and a cooling effect in the boreal zone due to different control of biogeochemical and biophysical processes. Ongoing land-use/cover changes mostly...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/034002 |
| _version_ | 1797747981232898048 |
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| author | Mi Zhang Xuhui Lee Guirui Yu Shijie Han Huimin Wang Junhua Yan Yiping Zhang Yide Li Takeshi Ohta Takashi Hirano Joon Kim Natsuko Yoshifuji Wei Wang |
| author_facet | Mi Zhang Xuhui Lee Guirui Yu Shijie Han Huimin Wang Junhua Yan Yiping Zhang Yide Li Takeshi Ohta Takashi Hirano Joon Kim Natsuko Yoshifuji Wei Wang |
| author_sort | Mi Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate models simulating continental scale deforestation suggest a warming effect of land clearing on the surface air temperature in the tropical zone and a cooling effect in the boreal zone due to different control of biogeochemical and biophysical processes. Ongoing land-use/cover changes mostly occur at local scales (hectares), and it is not clear whether the local-scale deforestation will generate temperature patterns consistent with the climate model results. Here we paired 40 and 12 flux sites with nearby weather stations in North and South America and in Eastern Asia, respectively, and quantified the temperature difference between these paired sites. Our goal was to investigate the response of the surface air temperature to local-scale (hectares) land clearing across latitudes using the surface weather stations as proxies for localized land clearing. The results show that north of 10°N, the annual mean temperature difference (open land minus forest) decreases with increasing latitude, but the temperature difference shrinks with latitude at a faster rate in the Americas [−0.079 (±0.010) °C per degree] than in Asia [−0.046 (±0.011) °C per degree]. Regression of the combined data suggests a transitional latitude of about 35.5°N that demarks deforestation warming to the south and cooling to the north. The warming in latitudes south of 35°N is associated with increase in the daily maximum temperature, with little change in the daily minimum temperature while the reverse is true in the boreal latitudes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:59:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2f1fff34f77548c9a2a5407da5ce9eb8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:59:23Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-2f1fff34f77548c9a2a5407da5ce9eb82023-08-09T14:42:44ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262014-01-019303400210.1088/1748-9326/9/3/034002Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudesMi Zhang0Xuhui Lee1Guirui Yu2Shijie Han3Huimin Wang4Junhua Yan5Yiping Zhang6Yide Li7Takeshi Ohta8Takashi Hirano9Joon Kim10Natsuko Yoshifuji11Wei Wang12NUIST-Yale Center on Atmospheric Environment, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven , CT 06511, USAInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Shenyang 110016, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of ChinaSouth China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou 510650, People’s Republic of ChinaXishuangbanna Tropical ‘Botanical’ Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Kunming 650223, People’s Republic of ChinaResearch Institute of Tropical Forestry Chinese Academy of ‘Forestry’ , Guangzhou 510650, People’s Republic of ChinaGraduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University , Nagoya, 464-8601, JapanGraduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University , Sapporo 060-8589, JapanDepartment of Landscape Architecture and Rural Systems Engineering, Seoul National University , Seoul 151-742, KoreaGraduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University , Kyoto 606-8502, JapanNUIST-Yale Center on Atmospheric Environment, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of ChinaClimate models simulating continental scale deforestation suggest a warming effect of land clearing on the surface air temperature in the tropical zone and a cooling effect in the boreal zone due to different control of biogeochemical and biophysical processes. Ongoing land-use/cover changes mostly occur at local scales (hectares), and it is not clear whether the local-scale deforestation will generate temperature patterns consistent with the climate model results. Here we paired 40 and 12 flux sites with nearby weather stations in North and South America and in Eastern Asia, respectively, and quantified the temperature difference between these paired sites. Our goal was to investigate the response of the surface air temperature to local-scale (hectares) land clearing across latitudes using the surface weather stations as proxies for localized land clearing. The results show that north of 10°N, the annual mean temperature difference (open land minus forest) decreases with increasing latitude, but the temperature difference shrinks with latitude at a faster rate in the Americas [−0.079 (±0.010) °C per degree] than in Asia [−0.046 (±0.011) °C per degree]. Regression of the combined data suggests a transitional latitude of about 35.5°N that demarks deforestation warming to the south and cooling to the north. The warming in latitudes south of 35°N is associated with increase in the daily maximum temperature, with little change in the daily minimum temperature while the reverse is true in the boreal latitudes.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/034002deforestationsurface air temperaturediurnal temperature rangelatitudinal pattern |
| spellingShingle | Mi Zhang Xuhui Lee Guirui Yu Shijie Han Huimin Wang Junhua Yan Yiping Zhang Yide Li Takeshi Ohta Takashi Hirano Joon Kim Natsuko Yoshifuji Wei Wang Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudes Environmental Research Letters deforestation surface air temperature diurnal temperature range latitudinal pattern |
| title | Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudes |
| title_full | Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudes |
| title_fullStr | Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudes |
| title_short | Response of surface air temperature to small-scale land clearing across latitudes |
| title_sort | response of surface air temperature to small scale land clearing across latitudes |
| topic | deforestation surface air temperature diurnal temperature range latitudinal pattern |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/034002 |
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