ArticleNature communications2024
Accounting for albedo change to identify climate-positive tree cover restoration.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phenological fluctuations induce seasonal asymmetric warming in boreal forests.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Extra Climate Benefits From Afforestation Due to Reduced Forest Fragmentation in China.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Article
- Non-Abrupt Vegetation Changes due to Altered Nutrient Balance Make Complex Scale-Dependent Warming and Cooling Effects.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Integrated Estimates of Forest Expansion Opportunity in New York State.Environmental management · 2026Article
- Latitudinal divergence in runoff responses to global forestation due to forest-atmosphere feedbacks.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Reforestation scenarios shape global and regional temperature outcomes.Communications earth & environment · 2026Article
- Experimental evidence of a biological soil crust degradation climate warming amplification feedback.Communications earth & environment · 2026Article
- Climate impacts from North American boreal forest fires.Nature geoscience · 2026Article
- Accounting for albedo in carbon market protocols.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Reforestation-induced aerosol cooling effects divergently modulated by various types of biogeophysical feedback.National science review · 2025Article
- Amplified local cooling effect of forestation in warming Europe.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Cones and consequences: the false dichotomy of conifers vs broad-leaves has critical implications for research and modelling.The New phytologist · 2025Review
- Addressing critiques refines global estimates of reforestation potential for climate change mitigation.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Current Forest Carbon Offset Buffer Pool Contributions Do Not Adequately Insure Against Disturbance-Driven Carbon Losses.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Temperate forests can deliver future wood demand and climate-change mitigation dependent on afforestation and circularity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Observed different impacts of potential tree restoration on local surface and air temperature.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Assessing the climate benefits of afforestation in the Canadian Northern Boreal and Southern Arctic.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Vast extension but positive outcomes, reduced but negative: complexity and nuances in evaluating land use by livestock and crops.Animal frontiers : the review magazine of animal agriculture · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Restoring tree cover changes albedo, which is the fraction of sunlight reflected from the Earth's surface. In most locations, these changes in albedo offset or even negate the carbon removal benefits with the latter leading to global warming. Previous efforts to quantify the global climate mitigation benefit of restoring tree cover have not accounted robustly for albedo given a lack of spatially explicit data. Here we produce maps that show that carbon-only estimates may be up to 81% too high. While dryland and boreal settings have especially severe albedo offsets, it is possible to find places that provide net-positive climate mitigation benefits in all biomes. We further find that on-the-ground projects are concentrated in these more climate-positive locations, but that the majority still face at least a 20% albedo offset. Thus, strategically deploying restoration of tree cover for maximum climate benefit requires accounting for albedo change and we provide the tools to do so.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.