Reconciling the disagreement between observed and simulated temperature responses to deforestation.

ABSTRACT: Land use changes have great potential to influence temperature extremes. However, contradictory summer daytime temperature responses to deforestation are reported between observations and climate models. Here we present a pertinent comparison between multiple satellite-based datasets and climate model deforestation experiments. Observationally-based methods rely on a space-for-time assumption, which compares neighboring locations with contrasting land covers as a proxy for land use changes over time without considering possible atmospheric feedbacks. Offline land simulations or subgrid-level analyses agree with observed warming effects only when the space-for-time assumption is replicated. However, deforestation-related cloud and radiation effects manifest in coupled climate simulations an

SUBMITTER: Chen L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6954270 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature