The hotter it gets, the more forests act as thermal insulators

Using data from about a hundred sites worldwide, an international research team has demonstrated that forest cover acts as a global thermal insulator, by cooling the understory when the air temperature is high. This buffering effect is a well-known phenomenon, but this study is the first that has evaluated this worldwide in temperate, boreal and tropical forests. Maximum temperatures are on average 4°C lower in forests than outside them, with much higher differences for tropical forests than for the others. The researchers have also shown that the hotter the external conditions, the greater a forest’s buffering capacity.

Based on this observation, management strategies can be proposed to improve forest microclimates and limit the harmful effects of global warming on forest biodiversity. This study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution on 1st April 2019 was an initiative by Pieter De Frenne from Ghent University and Jonathan Lenoir, CNRS researcher at EDYSAN laboratory (CNRS / Université de Picardie Jules Verne).