Speaker
Description
Vegetation changes affect the Earth-atmosphere energy balance through both surface albedo and cloud-mediated radiative effects. However, inadequate consideration of cloud albedo feedbacks and differences among cloud types may bias estimates of regional radiative impacts. Using satellite and reanalysis data, we show that increased vegetation reduces surface albedo and leads to warming under cloudless conditions. However, considering cloud feedback reveals that cloud albedo can substantially offset this warming. Especially in tropical regions, cloud albedo can fully reverse the surface warming, leading to net cooling with an offset rate of 155%. This contrasts sharply with extratropical regions, where vegetation-induced increases in cloud reflectivity offset only about 42% of the surface warming. This more pronounced tropical offset arises because increased vegetation leads to greater cloud formation and favors cloud types with higher albedo. Vegetation enhances latent heat flux, stabilizes the lower atmosphere, and promotes energy accumulation, thereby favoring the formation of stratiform and deep convective clouds. In contrast, in extratropical regions, stronger sensible heat dominates, primarily triggering shallow convective clouds with relatively weak reflectivity. These results highlight that assuming globally uniform cloud responses cannot accurately capture the climatic effects of vegetation change, particularly the complete offset of surface warming by tropical cloud feedbacks and would substantially underestimate the cooling contribution of vegetation.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | Yes, I’m willing to present as a poster. |