Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University &Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a (Lumen Building), 6708PA Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK.
Nat Commun. 2017 Jan 11;8:14065. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14065.
Forests impact regional hydrology and climate directly by regulating water and heat fluxes. Indirect effects through cloud formation and precipitation can be important in facilitating continental-scale moisture recycling but are poorly understood at regional scales. In particular, the impact of temperate forest on clouds is largely unknown. Here we provide observational evidence for a strong increase in cloud cover over large forest regions in western Europe based on analysis of 10 years of 15 min resolution data from geostationary satellites. In addition, we show that widespread windthrow by cyclone Klaus in the Landes forest led to a significant decrease in local cloud cover in subsequent years. Strong cloud development along the downwind edges of larger forest areas are consistent with a forest-breeze mesoscale circulation. Our results highlight the need to include impacts on cloud formation when evaluating the water and climate services of temperate forests, in particular around densely populated areas.
森林通过调节水热通量直接影响区域水文和气候。通过云形成和降水的间接影响在促进大陆尺度水分再循环方面非常重要，但在区域尺度上却知之甚少。特别是，温带森林对云的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。在这里，我们根据来自地球静止卫星的 10 年 15 分钟分辨率数据的分析，提供了欧洲西部大森林地区云量大量增加的观测证据。此外，我们还表明，克劳斯气旋在朗德斯森林中造成的广泛风倒导致当地云量在随后几年显著减少。较大森林区下风边缘的强烈云发展与林风中小尺度环流一致。我们的研究结果强调了在评估温带森林的水和气候服务时，特别是在人口密集地区，需要考虑对云形成的影响。
