Deforestation drives climate change that harms remaining forest

In a paper published today in Nature Communications, a team of scientists from the University of California, Irvine, use climate models and satellite data to show how protecting tropical forests can help with climate change.

Climate scientists use computer simulations to model the climate of the planet in the future as they keep emitting greenhouse gases. Accurate measurement of all the moving parts of the climate system, from how much sunlight hits and warms the climate, to the response of forest biomass to changes in temperature, rainfall and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is what such models rely on.

The degree to which tropical rainforests like the Amazon and the Congo are deforested contributes to additional forest losses because of their effect on regional climate.

The lead author said that they used Earth system models to quantify what the climate impact is today.

The paper shows that the benefits of climate feedbacks can be seen in the nearby regions.

The regional climate changes that happen as a result of the new patch of depredation in the Amazon led to an additional 5.1 percent loss of total biomass in the entire Amazon basin. The climate effects of depredations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are 3.8 percent. Tropical forests store about 200 petagrams of carbon. Every year since 2010, there has been a reduction in that carbon. One petagram is 1 trillion kilograms.

For lack of data, climate modelers have not considered tree mortality in their simulations. By combining satellite data with climate variables, they were able to get information about how tree mortality and fire affect the climate.

The co-author of the paper said that deforestation has consequences for the region's air temperature and precipitation.

The team provided information that will help scientists fine tune their models by estimating carbon losses from climate change in the Amazon. This might help us design better climate solutions. By knowing how much is lost through this activity, policymakers can make stronger arguments for why it is worthwhile to curb it.

More information: Yue Li et al, Deforestation-induced climate change reduces carbon storage in remaining tropical forests, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29601-0 Journal information: Nature Communications Citation: Deforestation drives climate change that harms remaining forest (2022, April 13) retrieved 13 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-deforestation-climate-forest.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.