Falvo, G. and G. P. Robertson. 2025. Nature-based climate solutions can help mitigate the radiative forcing that follows deforestation. Communications Earth & Environment 6:425.
Widespread expansion of agriculture and forestry has altered the surface of the Earth, the composition of the atmosphere, and as a result, the climate. Here we quantify the radiative forcing caused by the historical deforestation of an ecoregion in the U.S. Upper Midwest and the adoption of eight nature-based climate solutions. We combined regional forest inventory data with over three decades of remote sensing and in situ data from a replicated land use change experiment. Deforestation of the region caused net global warming (1626 ± 44 µW m-2), mainly from the 76 % reduction of ecosystem carbon stocks, but also from the 84 % reduction of the soil methane sink and the 115 % increase in soil nitrous oxide emissions. The associated albedo increase offset 24 % of this greenhouse gas induced warming. For the adoption of nature-based climate solutions, we found that conservation agriculture can provide -39 to -76 ± 31 µW m-2 of climate mitigation over a 100-year time period while short/medium length forestry rotations can provide more at -296 to -881 ± 44 µW m-2 and natural forest regeneration can provide the most at -1555 ± 44 µW m-2. As the impacts of climate change on nature and society intensify, consideration should be given to the climate mitigation, habitat, and ecosystem services that nature-based climate solutions can provide.
DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02291-4
Data URL: https://datadryad.org/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmswn
Associated Datatables:
Associated Treatment Areas:
- T6 Alfalfa
- T1 Conventional Management
- T2 No-till Management
- T7 Early Successional
- TDF Deciduous Forest
- TCF Coniferous Forest
- T3 Reduced Input Management
- T4 Biologically Based Management
- T5 Poplar
- TSF Mid-successional
- MCSE Main Cropping Systems Experiment
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