Assessing the climate benefits of afforestation in the Canadian Northern Boreal and Southern Arctic.

ABSTRACT: Afforestation greatly influences several earth system processes, making it essential to understand these effects to accurately assess its potential for climate change mitigation. Although our understanding of forest-climate system interactions has improved, significant knowledge gaps remain, preventing definitive assessments of afforestation's net climate benefits. In this review, focusing on the Canadian northern boreal and southern arctic, we identify these gaps and synthesize existing knowledge. The review highlights regional realities, Earth's climatic history, uncertainties in biogeochemical (BGC) and biogeophysical (BGP) changes following afforestation, and limitations in current assessment methodologies, emphasizing the need to reconcile these uncertainties before drawing firm concl

SUBMITTER: Dsouza KB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11861297 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature