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A new study finds that protected forests with limits on human activity are significantly cooler than neighboring forests that lack protections. The findings suggest the cooling effect is strongest in boreal forests at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, which make up about 27 percent of total global forest area.
The researchers attribute the cooler temperatures to the fact that protected forests have more vegetation and a more complex structure that creates a buffer against heat. An analysis of forest canopies shows protected areas have higher leaf densities, which means more shade and cooler temperatures that help protect biodiversity near the forest floor.
“The cooling effect is very important for life below the tree canopy near the ground,” said co-author Pieter De Frenne, a climate researcher at the University of Ghent. He added that most forest biodiversity is in that zone, including in temperate, mid-latitude forests.
Oregon State University forest ecologist Matthew Betts said the findings of the study are important but that further research is needed to determine how they hold up in the United States.
“At the moment we don’t have under-canopy data for large tracts of the planet,” he said. “Pieter has done a great job of implementing a network of under-canopy climate stations across Europe, but we don’t have anything like that in North America."
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The birds are telling us that this is going on and we need to act… start turning things around... If we take care of the birds, we not only take care of birds, we take care of ourselves and we take care of ecosystems that support many other wildlife species.”
