Biophysical impact of forest age changes on land surface temperature in China

作     者：Zhang, Zhijiang Wang, Lunche Chen, Chao Zhang, Xiang Ding, Chao Yuan, Moxi Shen, Lixing Li, Xinxin 

作者机构：School of Geography Science and Geomatics Engineering Suzhou University of Science and Technology Suzhou215009 China Suzhou Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Intelligent Technology and Application Suzhou University of Science and Technology Suzhou215009 China School of Geography and Information Engineering China University of Geosciences Wuhan430074 China Department of Geographic Science Faculty of Arts and Sciences Beijing Normal University Zhuhai519087 China School of Public Administration and Human Geography Hunan University of Technology and Business Changsha410205 China School of Atmospheric Science and Remote Sensing Wuxi University Wuxi214105 China School of Resource and Environmental Science Wuhan University Wuhan430079 China 

出 版 物：《Science of the Total Environment》 (Sci. Total Environ.)

年 卷 期：2025年第964卷

页      面：178445页

核心收录：

学科分类：0830[工学-环境科学与工程（可授工学、理学、农学学位）] 08[工学] 0706[理学-大气科学] 

基　　金：This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (4217131) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant NO. 2023JJ40226) 

主　　题：Land surface temperature 

摘      要：Forest age structures have been substantially affected by natural disturbances and anthropogenic activities worldwide. Their changes can significantly influence local and nonlocal climate through both the biogeochemical and biophysical processes. However, numerous studies have focused on the biogeochemical effect of forest age changes whereas the biophysical effect has received far less attention. Here we investigated how forest age changes influence land surface temperature (LST) by comparing older forests and adjacent younger forests pixels and unraveled underlying biophysical mechanisms using satellite observations over China during 2003–2012. Our study showed that older forests had a substantial annual cooling benefit than adjacent medium-aged and young forests. Attribution analysis indicated that the cooling effect of latent heat flux counteracted the albedo-induced warming effect, leading to the net cooling effect of older evergreen needle-leaved forest or evergreen broadleaved forest. Furthermore, the cooling effect of sensible heat flux is greater than the albedo-driven warming effect, contributing to the net cooling effect of older deciduous broadleaved forest. Our work is a step forward to underscore the potential of preserving mature forests as a local climate adaptation strategy and provides important parameterization foundation for earth system models without incorporation of forest age modules. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.