Diminished biophysical cooling benefits of global forestation under rising atmospheric CO2

Fei Kan, Hao Xu (), Shuchang Tang, Josep Peñuelas, Xu Lian, Caspar T. J. Roebroek, Nazhakaiti Anniwaer, Kai Wang and Shilong Piao ()
Additional contact information
Fei Kan: Peking University
Hao Xu: Peking University
Shuchang Tang: Peking University
Josep Peñuelas: Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB
Xu Lian: Peking University
Caspar T. J. Roebroek: Joint Research Centre (JRC)
Nazhakaiti Anniwaer: Peking University
Kai Wang: Peking University
Shilong Piao: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Forestation is a proposed solution for mitigating global warming through carbon sequestration. However, its biophysical effects through surface energy modulation, particularly under rising CO2 levels, is less understood. Here we investigate the biophysical effects of global potential forestation on near-surface air temperature (Ta) under increasing CO2 concentrations using a land-atmosphere coupled model with slab ocean module. Our findings reveal that, under current climate conditions, the biophysical effect of global full-potential forestation can reduce land surface Ta by 0.062 °C globally. However, this cooling benefit diminishes as CO2 rises. While elevated CO2 slightly alters evaporative local cooling via stomatal closure and adjustments in forestation-driven rainfall regimes, the dominant reduction stems from non-local mechanisms. Background climate shifts reorganize forestation-induced horizontal temperature advection, weakening remote cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. These findings highlight the necessity of incorporating dynamic forest management strategies to optimize mitigation potential under a changing climate.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59547-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59547-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59547-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().