Unanticipated cooling gains from afforestation in Southwestern China

Bibliographic Data

ID15549495
AuthorsPanxing He (0000-0002-8055-5457, Fudan University, corresponding author), Jintong Ren (0000-0003-4774-8190, Guizhou University, corresponding author), Ning Ye (0000-0002-3679-4047, University of Canterbury, corresponding author), Jiangqin Chao (Yunnan University, corresponding author), Yiyan Zeng (Fudan University, corresponding author), Jiawei Li (0000-0001-9801-4715, Fudan University, corresponding author), Qingbin Zhang (0000-0002-8523-9293, Xinyang College of Agriculture and Forestry, corresponding author), Jianhua Xiao (0000-0003-1109-9133, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, corresponding author), Songyan Zhu (0000-0001-6899-9920, University of Southampton, corresponding author), Jun Ma (0000-0003-3412-7766, Fudan University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume20
Issue12
Pages124013-124013
Publication date2025-11-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
PublisherIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/ae1bbd
OpenAlexW4416459520
LanguageEN
References cited38

Amid accelerating forest degradation and climate warming, afforestation is increasingly regarded as a strategic intervention to reconfigure land–atmosphere energy exchange. However, most existing studies have predominantly emphasized direct biophysical effects, namely surface cooling resulting from forest replacement of non-forest cover, while largely overlooking the indirect regulation caused by environmental feedbacks during forest expansion. To address this gap, a dual-pathway analytical framework was proposed to diagnose afforestation-induced changes in land surface temperature ( LST ). Within this framework, a ‘zero-impact line’ was defined to represent the LST response solely from forest cover conversion, and the indirect effect amplification index ( τ ) was introduced to quantify the magnitude and direction of indirectly driven LST variation. Results indicated that each 1% increase in forest cover reduced LST by 0.029 °C–0.036 °C through direct effects ( DE ). In the early stages of forestation, τ reached 187%, 227%, and 242% in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, respectively, revealing that indirect feedbacks can equal or exceed DE , thereby amplifying the overall cooling outcome in the subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests of Southwest China

Afforestation · Climate change · Evergreen · Forest cover · Forest ecology · Land cover · Land degradation · Subtropics · Climate change and permafrost · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics · Urban Heat Island Mitigation

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