Fulfilling global climate pledges can lead to major increase in forest land on Tibetan Plateau

Gao, Peichao; Gao, Yifan; Ou, Yang; McJeon, Haewon; Zhang, Xiaodan; Ye, Sijing; Wang, Yuanhui; Song, Changqing

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106364

Fulfilling global climate pledges can lead to major increase in forest land on Tibetan Plateau

Journal Article · Thu Mar 09 00:00:00 EST 2023 · iScience

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106364· OSTI ID:1962858

^[1]; Gao, Yifan ^[1]; Ou, Yang ^[2]; ^[2]; Zhang, Xiaodan ^[1]; Ye, Sijing ^[1]; Wang, Yuanhui ^[1]; Song, Changqing ^[1]

Beijing Normal University (China)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Joint Global Change Research Institute; Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)

The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow spawned the enhancement and updating of many nations’ climate pledges. Previous research has investigated the effects of these pledges on limiting planetary warming, but their spatially explicit effects on land use/cover are unknown. Here, we linked the Glasgow pledges and the spatially explicit responses of the Tibetan Plateau’s land systems. We found that while fulfilling global climate pledges may not significantly affect the global shares of forestland, grassland/pasture, shrubland, and cropland, it needs a 9.4% increase in the forest area of the Tibetan Plateau. This need is an area 11.4 times the increase of the plateau’s forest in the 2010s, or greater than the size of Belgium. The new forest comes mainly from the medium-density grassland in the Yangtze River basin, calling for more proactive environmental management for the headwaters area of this longest river in Asia.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program; State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1962858

Report Number(s):: PNNL-ACT-SA-10687

Journal Information:: iScience, Journal Name: iScience Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 26; ISSN 2589-0042

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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