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Seasonal and long-term dynamics in forest microclimate effects: global pattern and mechanism

Authors :
Chaoqun Zhang
Yongxian Su
Liyang Liu
Jianping Wu
Guangqing Huang
Xueyan Li
Chongyuan Bi
Wenting Yan
Raffaele Lafortezza
Source :
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, Vol 6, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2023)
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
Nature Portfolio, 2023.

Abstract

Abstract Although the biophysical effects of afforestation or deforestation on local climate are recognized, the biophysical consequences of seasonal and long-term dynamics in forests on understory microclimate, which creates microrefugia for forest organisms under global warming, remain less well understood. To fill this research gap, we combined a three-layered (i.e., canopy, forest air space and understory soil) land surface energy balance model and Intrinsic Biophysical Mechanism Model and quantify seasonal (warm minus cool seasons) and long-term changes (later minus former periods) in the biophysical effects of forest dynamics on understory air temperature (ΔT a) and soil surface temperature (ΔT s). We found that high latitudes forests show strongest negative seasonal variations in both ΔT a and ΔT s, followed by moderate latitudes forests. In contrast, low latitudes forests exhibit positive seasonal variations in ΔT a and weak negative seasonal variations in ΔT s. For the long-term variations, ΔT s increases systematically at all three latitudes. However, the situation differs greatly for ΔT s, with a weak increase at low and moderate latitudes, but a slight decrease at high latitudes. Overall, changes in sensible and latent heat fluxes induced by forest dynamics (such as leaf area index), by altering the aerodynamic resistances of canopy and soil surface layers, are the main factors driving changes in forest microclimate effects. In addition, this study also develops an aerodynamic resistance coefficient $${f}_{{\rm{r}}}^{1}$$ f r 1 to combine the air temperature effects and surface soil temperature effects and proposes an indicator – ΔT Su, that is, $$\Delta {T}_{{\rm{Su}}}=\Delta {T}_{{\rm{s}}}+(\frac{1}{{f}_{{\rm{r}}}^{1}}-1)\Delta {T}_{{\rm{a}}}$$ Δ T Su = Δ T s + ( 1 f r 1 − 1 ) Δ T a , as a possible benchmark for evaluating the total biophysical effects of forests on temperatures.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
23973722
Volume :
6
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.9a7e58e6a52496c9c14b3ed02fe84d2
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-023-00442-y