More than mitigation: The role of forests in climate adaptation

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Reek, Josephine Elena; Zohner, Constantin M.; Smith, Gabriel Reuben; Cook-Patton, Susan C.; De Frenne, Pieter; D'odorico, Paolo; Floriancic, Marius G.; Jackson, Robert B.; Jones, Julia A.; Kirchner, James W.; Lague, Marysa; Liang, Yuting; Masuda, Yuta J.; McDonald, Robert I.; Parsons, Luke A.; Probst, Benedict S.; Spector, June T.; West, Thales A. P.; Wolff, Nicholas H.; Zellweger, Florian; Crowther, Thomas W.
• 署名单位: Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Nature Conservancy; Ghent University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Stanford University; Stanford University; Oregon State University; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow & Landscape Research; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; University of British Columbia; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Nanjing Institute of Soil Science, CAS; City University of New York (CUNY) System; Humboldt University of Berlin; Utah System of Higher Education; University of Utah; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; University of Cambridge; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Nature Conservancy; King Abdullah University of Science & Technology
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.ads4361
• 发表日期: 2026-02-12
• 页码: 669-678
• 关键词: WATER YIELD; flood risk; surface-temperature; SCALE DEFORESTATION; economic-impacts; AMAZON BASIN; CARBON SINK; trees; vegetation; feedbacks

摘要

Forests regulate global and local climates in ways that impact human well-being. In this Review, we discuss the scale-dependent mechanisms through which forests regulate climate, highlighting their contributions to global mitigation and local adaptation. Locally, forests tend to buffer temperatures, cooling in warm conditions and warming in cold ones. In regions that naturally support dense forest cover, trees contribute to global cooling primarily through carbon uptake, with some offsetting from albedo-related warming. By enhancing rainfall interception, evapotranspiration, and cloud formation, forests also influence the hydrological cycle, lowering flood risks in humid regions but often reducing downstream water availability, especially in drier climates. Collectively, these interacting processes show that the greatest climate benefits occur where forests are native, highlighting their importance for both climate adaptation and mitigation.