Erik Swietlicki
Professor
Impact on short-lived climate forcers increases projected warming due to deforestation
Författare
Summary, in English
The climate impact of deforestation depends on the relative strength of several biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects. In addition to affecting the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) and moisture with the atmosphere and surface albedo, vegetation emits biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) that alter the formation of short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), which include aerosol, ozone and methane. Here we show that a scenario of complete global deforestation results in a net positive radiative forcing (RF; 0.12 W m-2) from SLCFs, with the negative RF from decreases in ozone and methane concentrations partially offsetting the positive aerosol RF. Combining RFs due to CO2, surface albedo and SLCFs suggests that global deforestation could cause 0.8 K warming after 100 years, with SLCFs contributing 8% of the effect. However, deforestation as projected by the RCP8.5 scenario leads to zero net RF from SLCF, primarily due to nonlinearities in the aerosol indirect effect.
Avdelning/ar
- Centrum för miljö- och klimatvetenskap (CEC)
- Kärnfysik
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
Publiceringsår
2018-12-01
Språk
Engelska
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Nature Communications
Volym
9
Issue
1
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Nature Publishing Group
Ämne
- Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
- Climate Research
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 2041-1723