Synergistic Ecoclimate Teleconnections from Forest Loss in Different Regions Structure Global Ecological Responses

PLoS One. 2016 Nov 16;11(11):e0165042. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165042. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Forest loss in hotspots around the world impacts not only local climate where loss occurs, but also influences climate and vegetation in remote parts of the globe through ecoclimate teleconnections. The magnitude and mechanism of remote impacts likely depends on the location and distribution of forest loss hotspots, but the nature of these dependencies has not been investigated. We use global climate model simulations to estimate the distribution of ecologically-relevant climate changes resulting from forest loss in two hotspot regions: western North America (wNA), which is experiencing accelerated dieoff, and the Amazon basin, which is subject to high rates of deforestation. The remote climatic and ecological net effects of simultaneous forest loss in both regions differed from the combined effects of loss from the two regions simulated separately, as evident in three impacted areas. Eastern South American Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) increased due to changes in seasonal rainfall associated with Amazon forest loss and changes in temperature related to wNA forest loss. Eurasia's GPP declined with wNA forest loss due to cooling temperatures increasing soil ice volume. Southeastern North American productivity increased with simultaneous forest loss, but declined with only wNA forest loss due to changes in VPD. Our results illustrate the need for a new generation of local-to-global scale analyses to identify potential ecoclimate teleconnections, their underlying mechanisms, and most importantly, their synergistic interactions, to predict the responses to increasing forest loss under future land use change and climate change.

MeSH terms

  • Brazil
  • Climate*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Conservation of Natural Resources*
  • Ecosystem*
  • Forests*
  • Internationality*
  • North America
  • Remote Sensing Technology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported primarily through the National Science Foundation EF-1340649 to the University of Washington, EF-1340624 to the University of Arizona, and EF-1340604 to Michigan State University (www.nsf.gov). Additional support was provided through the National Science foundation EF-1550641 to the University of Washington, EF-1550686 to Michigan State University, EF-1550756 to the University of Arizona, to S.R.S. by the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona (haury.arizona.edu), and to J.C.V. by the Estrategia de Sostenibilidad 2014–2015 at the Universidad de Antioquia (http://www.udea.edu.co/). The Community Earth System Model project is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Science (BER) of the U.S. Department of Energy. Computing resources were provided by the Climate Simulation Laboratory at National Center for Atmospheric Research's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and other agencies. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.