Deforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast Asia
Deforestation in the tropics causes warming which contributes to regional climate change. Forest loss occurs over a broad range of spatial scales, producing a variety of spatial patterns of cleared and forested land. Whether the spatial attributes of these patterns influence the resulting temperatur...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2fdc |
| _version_ | 1797747463337017344 |
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| author | Octavia Crompton Débora Corrêa John Duncan Sally Thompson |
| author_facet | Octavia Crompton Débora Corrêa John Duncan Sally Thompson |
| author_sort | Octavia Crompton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Deforestation in the tropics causes warming which contributes to regional climate change. Forest loss occurs over a broad range of spatial scales, producing a variety of spatial patterns of cleared and forested land. Whether the spatial attributes of these patterns influence the resulting temperature change remains largely unknown. We adopted a differences-in-differences approach to analyse remotely-sensed forest loss and land surface temperature (LST) data in maritime Southeast Asia. We found that deforestation increased LST, as expected, but that the temperature increases were smaller when forest loss produced more fragmented landscapes in which non-forest and forest edges were heavily interlaced. Temperature increases were greater where the forest loss was more extensive. Warming also extended beyond the location of forest removal, so that forest loss increased temperatures in undisturbed locations up to 6 km away. Different spatial patterns of land clearing, for example, as might be produced by small-holder agriculture as opposed to large-scale deforestation, would therefore have different impacts on the local climate. Conserving forests within 4 km of farmland, urban areas or other sensitive environments may help to avoid temperature increases that reduce land productivity and worsen human health. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:51:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7d16682c2dcb45f8bf2b6ea7b8c18bdc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:51:55Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-7d16682c2dcb45f8bf2b6ea7b8c18bdc2023-08-09T15:07:23ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262021-01-01161111401810.1088/1748-9326/ac2fdcDeforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast AsiaOctavia Crompton0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3576-6159Débora Corrêa1John Duncan2Sally Thompson3Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia , Crawley, WA 6009, AustraliaComplex Systems Group, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Western Australia , Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre (Transforming Maintenance through Data Science), University of Western Australia , Crawley, WA 6009, AustraliaSchool of Agriculture and Environment, University of Western Australia , Crawley, WA 6009, AustraliaDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia , Crawley, WA 6009, AustraliaDeforestation in the tropics causes warming which contributes to regional climate change. Forest loss occurs over a broad range of spatial scales, producing a variety of spatial patterns of cleared and forested land. Whether the spatial attributes of these patterns influence the resulting temperature change remains largely unknown. We adopted a differences-in-differences approach to analyse remotely-sensed forest loss and land surface temperature (LST) data in maritime Southeast Asia. We found that deforestation increased LST, as expected, but that the temperature increases were smaller when forest loss produced more fragmented landscapes in which non-forest and forest edges were heavily interlaced. Temperature increases were greater where the forest loss was more extensive. Warming also extended beyond the location of forest removal, so that forest loss increased temperatures in undisturbed locations up to 6 km away. Different spatial patterns of land clearing, for example, as might be produced by small-holder agriculture as opposed to large-scale deforestation, would therefore have different impacts on the local climate. Conserving forests within 4 km of farmland, urban areas or other sensitive environments may help to avoid temperature increases that reduce land productivity and worsen human health.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2fdcforestsfragmentationland use and land cover changeremote sensingtemperaturespatial pattern |
| spellingShingle | Octavia Crompton Débora Corrêa John Duncan Sally Thompson Deforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast Asia Environmental Research Letters forests fragmentation land use and land cover change remote sensing temperature spatial pattern |
| title | Deforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast Asia |
| title_full | Deforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast Asia |
| title_fullStr | Deforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast Asia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Deforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast Asia |
| title_short | Deforestation-induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in Maritime Southeast Asia |
| title_sort | deforestation induced surface warming is influenced by the fragmentation and spatial extent of forest loss in maritime southeast asia |
| topic | forests fragmentation land use and land cover change remote sensing temperature spatial pattern |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2fdc |
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