Aspen Bibliography
Document Type
Article
Author ORCID Identifier
Richard Massey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4831-8718
Brendan M. Rogers https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6711-8466
Logan T. Berner https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8947-0479
Sol Cooperdock https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9056-7008
Xanthe J. Walker https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2448-691X
Scott J. Goetz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6326-4308
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Nature Climate Change
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
First Page
1
Last Page
11
Publication Date
10-23-2023
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Abstract
Deciduous tree cover is expected to increase in North American boreal forests with climate warming and wildfire. This shift in composition has the potential to generate biophysical cooling via increased land surface albedo. Here we use Landsat-derived maps of continuous tree canopy cover and deciduous fractional composition to assess albedo change over recent decades. We find, on average, a small net decrease in deciduous fraction from 2000 to 2015 across boreal North America and from 1992 to 2015 across Canada, despite extensive fire disturbance that locally increased deciduous vegetation. We further find near-neutral net biophysical change in radiative forcing associated with albedo when aggregated across the domain. Thus, while there have been widespread changes in forest composition over the past several decades, the net changes in composition and associated post-fire radiative forcing have not induced systematic negative feedbacks to climate warming over the spatial and temporal scope of our study.
Recommended Citation
Massey, R., B. M. Rogers, L. T. Berner, S. Cooperdock, M. C. Mack, X. J. Walker, and S. J. Goetz. 2023. Forest composition change and biophysical climate feedbacks across boreal North America. Nature Climate Change:1-8
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