Reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in China
Deforestation-induced landscape fragmentation causes habitat loss and isolation, modifies local climate, and therefore threatens biodiversity. While, on the contrary, how large-scale reforestation may improve the connectivity and thermal buffers of habitats is not well understood. We show that decad...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3fda |
| _version_ | 1797747155320963072 |
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| author | Anqi Huang Runping Shen Gensuo Jia Xiyan Xu |
| author_facet | Anqi Huang Runping Shen Gensuo Jia Xiyan Xu |
| author_sort | Anqi Huang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Deforestation-induced landscape fragmentation causes habitat loss and isolation, modifies local climate, and therefore threatens biodiversity. While, on the contrary, how large-scale reforestation may improve the connectivity and thermal buffers of habitats is not well understood. We show that decades long large-scale reforestation in China has effectively increased the size and connectivity of forest patches by gradually filling gaps among isolated patches and creating more core forests. The core forests have a stronger capacity to cool the land surface, leading to a daily mean cooling effect of −0.42 ± 0.23 °C relative to nearby marginal forests. Moreover, the core forests reduce diurnal range and seasonal variation of land surface temperature by 1.41 ± 0.23 °C and 0.42 ± 0.55 °C, respectively, relative to nearby marginal forests. The thermal buffering capacity of large size core forest (>100 km ^2 ) is more than twice that of small size (⩽10 km ^2 ). Despite their relatively low thermal buffering capacity, the marginal forests contribute about 73% to the increase of forest area in China during the last two decades and create buffer zones for the core forests to resist external disturbances, maintaining the internal stability of the forest ecosystem. We highlight that improving the integrity and connectivity of the forests with ecological restoration and succession can further enhance potential of forests to buffer local thermal environment under the current reforestation efforts, and thereby providing better connected thermal habitats for species to survive under climate change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:47:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-88a573bfa2cc4294b58beaa24dbf50ca |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:47:07Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-88a573bfa2cc4294b58beaa24dbf50ca2023-08-09T15:23:16ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117101405610.1088/1748-9326/ac3fdaReforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in ChinaAnqi Huang0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9261-5966Runping Shen1Gensuo Jia2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5950-9555Xiyan Xu3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2732-1325School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology , Nanjing 210044, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of ChinaDeforestation-induced landscape fragmentation causes habitat loss and isolation, modifies local climate, and therefore threatens biodiversity. While, on the contrary, how large-scale reforestation may improve the connectivity and thermal buffers of habitats is not well understood. We show that decades long large-scale reforestation in China has effectively increased the size and connectivity of forest patches by gradually filling gaps among isolated patches and creating more core forests. The core forests have a stronger capacity to cool the land surface, leading to a daily mean cooling effect of −0.42 ± 0.23 °C relative to nearby marginal forests. Moreover, the core forests reduce diurnal range and seasonal variation of land surface temperature by 1.41 ± 0.23 °C and 0.42 ± 0.55 °C, respectively, relative to nearby marginal forests. The thermal buffering capacity of large size core forest (>100 km ^2 ) is more than twice that of small size (⩽10 km ^2 ). Despite their relatively low thermal buffering capacity, the marginal forests contribute about 73% to the increase of forest area in China during the last two decades and create buffer zones for the core forests to resist external disturbances, maintaining the internal stability of the forest ecosystem. We highlight that improving the integrity and connectivity of the forests with ecological restoration and succession can further enhance potential of forests to buffer local thermal environment under the current reforestation efforts, and thereby providing better connected thermal habitats for species to survive under climate change.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3fdareforestationconnectivitycore forestsmarginal forestsland surface temperaturethermal buffering |
| spellingShingle | Anqi Huang Runping Shen Gensuo Jia Xiyan Xu Reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in China Environmental Research Letters reforestation connectivity core forests marginal forests land surface temperature thermal buffering |
| title | Reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in China |
| title_full | Reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in China |
| title_fullStr | Reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in China |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in China |
| title_short | Reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in China |
| title_sort | reforestation enhanced landscape connectivity for thermal buffering in china |
| topic | reforestation connectivity core forests marginal forests land surface temperature thermal buffering |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3fda |
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