Global cooling induced by biophysical effects of bioenergy crop cultivation

Jingmeng Wang, Wei Li (), Philippe Ciais, Laurent Z. X. Li, Jinfeng Chang, Daniel Goll, Thomas Gasser, Xiaomeng Huang, Narayanappa Devaraju and Olivier Boucher
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Jingmeng Wang: Tsinghua University
Wei Li: Tsinghua University
Philippe Ciais: Université Paris-Saclay
Laurent Z. X. Li: Sorbonne Université, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ecole Polytechnique
Jinfeng Chang: Zhejiang University
Daniel Goll: Université Paris Saclay, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, LSCE/IPSL
Thomas Gasser: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Xiaomeng Huang: Tsinghua University
Narayanappa Devaraju: Université Paris-Saclay
Olivier Boucher: Sorbonne Université/IPSL

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Bioenergy crop with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a key negative emission technology to meet carbon neutrality. However, the biophysical effects of widespread bioenergy crop cultivation on temperature remain unclear. Here, using a coupled atmosphere-land model with an explicit representation of lignocellulosic bioenergy crops, we find that after 50 years of large-scale bioenergy crop cultivation following plausible scenarios, global air temperature decreases by 0.03~0.08 °C, with strong regional contrasts and interannual variability. Over the cultivated regions, woody crops induce stronger cooling effects than herbaceous crops due to larger evapotranspiration rates and smaller aerodynamic resistance. At the continental scale, air temperature changes are not linearly proportional to the cultivation area. Sensitivity tests show that the temperature change is robust for eucalypt but more uncertain for switchgrass among different cultivation maps. Our study calls for new metrics to take the biophysical effects into account when assessing the climate mitigation capacity of BECCS.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27520-0

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