Land cover changes and their biogeophysical effects on climate

Authors

Rezaul Mahmood, Western Kentucky UniversityFollow
Roger A. Pielke Sr., University of Colorado at BoulderFollow
Kenneth Hubbard, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Dev Niyogi, Purdue UniversityFollow
Paul Dirmeyer, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies
Clive McAlpine, University of Queensland
Andrew Carleton, The Pennsylvania State University
Robert Hale, Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Samuel Gameda, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Adriana Beltran-Przekurat, Deere and Company
Bruce Baker, NOAA/ARL/ATDD, Oak Ridge, TN
Richard McNider, University of Alabama - Huntsville
David R. Legates, University of Delaware
Marshall Shepherd, University of Georgia
Jinyang Du, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University
Peter D. Blanken, University of Colorado, BoulderFollow
Oliver W. Frauenfeld, Texas A&M UniversityFollow
U. S. Nair, University of Alabama in Huntsville
Souleymane Fall, Tuskegee University

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

Int. J. Climatol. 34: 929–953 (2014)

Comments

This article is a U.S. government work, and is not subject to copyright in the United States.

Abstract

Land cover changes (LCCs) play an important role in the climate system. Research over recent decades highlights the impacts of these changes on atmospheric temperature, humidity, cloud cover, circulation, and precipitation. These impacts range from the local- and regional-scale to sub-continental and global-scale. It has been found that the impacts of regional-scale LCC in one area may also be manifested in other parts of the world as a climatic teleconnection. In light of these findings, this article provides an overview and synthesis of some of the most notable types of LCC and their impacts on climate. These LCC types include agriculture, deforestation and afforestation, desertification, and urbanization. In addition, this article provides a discussion on challenges to, and future research directions in, assessing the climatic impacts of LCC.