Prioritizing forestation based on biogeochemical and local biogeophysical impacts

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 27 September 2021; doi:10.1038/s41558-021-01161-z

Forests take up carbon from the atmosphere but also change Earth’s surface energy balance through biophysical effects. Accounting for these shows that tropical forests have the highest mitigation potential; the climate benefit of higher-latitude forests is offset by their warming effects in winter.