Land management and land-cover change have impacts of similar magnitude on surface temperature

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Sebastiaan Luyssaert - , Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Author)
  • Mathilde Jammet - , University of Copenhagen (Author)
  • Paul C. Stoy - , Montana State University (Author)
  • Stephan Estel - , Humboldt University of Berlin (Author)
  • Julia Pongratz - , Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (Author)
  • Eric Ceschia - , Universite Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (Author)
  • Galina Churkina - , Humboldt University of Berlin (Author)
  • Axel Don - , Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (Author)
  • Karlheinz Erb - , Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute (Author)
  • Morgan Ferlicoq - , University of Klagenfurt (Author)
  • Bert Gielen - , University of Antwerp (Author)
  • Thomas Grünwald - , Chair of Meteorology, Chair of Meteorology (Author)
  • Richard A. Houghton - , Woods Hole Research Center (Author)
  • Katja Klumpp - , UREP (Author)
  • Alexander Knohl - , University of Göttingen (Author)
  • Thomas Kolb - , Northern Arizona University (Author)
  • Tobias Kuemmerle - , Montana State University, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Author)
  • Tuomas Laurila - , Finnish Meteorological Institute (Author)
  • Annalea Lohila - , Finnish Meteorological Institute (Author)
  • Denis Loustau - , INRAE - National Institute of Agricultural Research (Author)
  • Matthew J. McGrath - , Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Author)
  • Patrick Meyfroidt - , Université catholique de Louvain (Author)
  • Eddy J. Moors - , Wageningen University & Research (WUR) (Author)
  • Kim Naudts - , Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Author)
  • Kim Novick - , United States Department of Agriculture (Author)
  • Juliane Otto - , Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Author)
  • Kim Pilegaard - , Technical University of Denmark (Author)
  • Casimiro A. Pio - , University of Aveiro (Author)
  • Serge Rambal - , Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (Author)
  • Corinna Rebmann - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • James Ryder - , Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Author)
  • Andrew E. Suyker - , University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Author)
  • Andrej Varlagin - , Russian Academy of Sciences (Author)
  • Martin Wattenbach - , Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre for Geosciences (Author)
  • A. Johannes Dolman - , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) (Author)

Abstract

Anthropogenic changes to land cover (LCC) remain common, but continuing land scarcity promotes the widespread intensification of land management changes (LMC) to better satisfy societal demand for food, fibre, fuel and shelter. The biophysical effects of LCC on surface climate are largely understood, particularly for the boreal and tropical zones, but fewer studies have investigated the biophysical consequences of LMC; that is, anthropogenic modification without a change in land cover type. Harmonized analysis of ground measurements and remote sensing observations of both LCC and LMC revealed that, in the temperate zone, potential surface cooling from increased albedo is typically offset by warming from decreased sensible heat fluxes, with the net effect being a warming of the surface. Temperature changes from LMC and LCC were of the same magnitude, and averaged 2 K at the vegetation surface and were estimated at 1.7 K in the planetary boundary layer. Given the spatial extent of land management (42-58% of the land surface) this calls for increasing the efforts to integrate land management in Earth System Science to better take into account the human impact on the climate.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)389-393
Number of pages5
JournalNature Climate Change
Volume4
Issue number5
Publication statusPublished - May 2014
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-2263-0073/work/163765995