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Publications

Journal Article Epublish 18 citations

PubMed: 40069169 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57548-5

Co-benefit of forestation on ozone air quality and carbon storage in South China.

Nat Commun 16(1):2429

Authors: Zehui Liu, Mi Zhou, Danyang Li, Tao Song, Xu Yue, Xiao Lu, Yuanhong Zhao, Lin Zhang

Affiliations

  • Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
  • Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
  • Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
  • Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
  • State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. National Earth System Science Data Center, Beijing, China.
  • School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China.
  • School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.
  • College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China.
  • Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China. Institute of Carbon Neutrality, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Substantial forestation-induced greening has occurred over South China, affecting the terrestrial carbon storage and atmospheric chemistry. However, these effects have not been systematically quantified due to complex biosphere-atmosphere interactions. Here we integrate satellite observations, forestry statistics, and an improved atmospheric chemistry model to investigate the impacts of forestation on both carbon storage and ozone air quality. We find that forestation alleviates surface ozone via enhanced dry deposition and suppressed turbulence mixing, outweighing the effect of enhanced biogenic emissions. The 2005-2019 greening mitigated the growing season mean surface ozone by 1.4 ± 2.3 ppbv, alleviated vegetation exposure by 15%-41% (depending on ozone metrics) in forests over South China, and increased Chinese forest carbon storage by 1.8 (1.6-2.1) Pg C. Future forestation may enhance carbon storage by 4.3 (3.8-4.8) Pg C and mitigate surface ozone over South China by 1.4 ± 1.2 ppbv in 2050. Air quality management should consider such co-benefits as forestation becomes necessary for carbon neutrality.

MeSH

Biological Science Disciplines, Air Pollution, Air, Forests