Contrasting temporal dynamics of land surface temperature responses to different types of forest loss

Jing Li; Zhao-Liang Li; Xiangyang Liu; Yitao Li; Meng Liu; Nanshan You; Hua Wu; Lei He; Menglin Si; Ronglin Tang; Chenghu Zhou; Wei Zhao; Si-Bo Duan; Pei Leng; Wenqi Liu; Enyu Zhao; Bo-Hui Tang; Zhenong Jin

doi:10.1016/j.xinn.2025.100875

Contrasting temporal dynamics of land surface temperature responses to different types of forest loss

Innovation (Camb). 2025 Mar 11;6(6):100875. doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2025.100875. eCollection 2025 Jun 2.

Authors

Jing Li¹, Zhao-Liang Li^{1

2}, Xiangyang Liu¹, Yitao Li², Meng Liu¹, Nanshan You³, Hua Wu⁴, Lei He¹, Menglin Si^{1

2}, Ronglin Tang², Chenghu Zhou⁵, Wei Zhao⁶, Si-Bo Duan¹, Pei Leng¹, Wenqi Liu⁷, Enyu Zhao⁸, Bo-Hui Tang⁹, Zhenong Jin^{10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Arable Land in China, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
³ Key Lab for Resources Use and Environmental Remediation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁴ School of Resources and Environment, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
⁵ Center for Ocean Remote Sensing of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510070, China.
⁶ Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.
⁷ Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
⁸ College of Information Science and Technology, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China.
⁹ Faculty of Land Resource Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China.
¹⁰ Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
¹¹ Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
¹² State Key Laboratory for Vegetation Structure, Function and Construction (VegLab), Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.

Abstract

Forest loss impacts local climate through biophysical processes. However, our understanding of this impact remains limited due to the neglect of its temporal dynamics. Using a space-and-time scheme that incorporates a change-detection method, we assess the dynamics of land surface temperature (LST) responses to various forest-loss types. Globally, LST increased by 0.12 K one year after forest loss, followed by a decreasing trend of -0.14 K per decade. Deforestation driven by commodity production and urbanization results in persistent warming, while forest disturbances such as shifting agriculture, forestry, and fire trigger diverse response dynamics with significant spatial variation due to differences in subsequent vegetation recovery. These disturbances cause attenuated warming in low and mid-latitudes, while, in the boreal zone, contrasting dynamics are observed: shifting agriculture causes attenuated cooling, whereas forestry and fire result in enhanced cooling. In addition to amplifying the amplitude of the LST seasonal cycle, forest loss also shifts the seasonal phase, which has not been previously reported. These findings demonstrate that climate feedback from forest loss is climate specific, loss-type dependent, and time varying, providing new insights for the development of local climate policies.

Keywords: biophysical impact; forest loss; land surface temperature; temporal dynamics.