Impacts of forest harvest on cold season land surface conditions and land-atmosphere interactions in northern Great Lakes states

Abstract

Land cover change, including temporary disturbances such as forest harvests, can significantly affect established regimes of surface energy balance and moisture exchange, altering flux processes that drive weather and climate. We examined the impacts of forest harvest on winter land-atmosphere interactions in a temperate region using high-resolution numerical modeling methods in paired simulations. Using the WRF-ARW atmospheric model and the Noah land surface model, we simulated the balance of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes and the development and dissipation of a stable nocturnal boundary layer during generally calm synoptic conditions. Our results show reduced daily-average snow-covered land surface sensible heat flux (by 80%) and latent heat flux (by 60%) to the atmosphere in forest clearings due to albedo effects and rebalancing of the surface energy budget. We found a land surface cooling effect (-8 W m-2) in snow-covered cleared areas, consistent with prior modeling studies and conceptual understanding of the mechanisms for midlatitude deforestation to offset anthropogenic global warming at local scales. Results also demonstrate impacts of forest clearing on the passage of a weak cold front due to altered near-surface winds and boundary layer stability. We show significant differences in both surface conditions and fluxes between harvested and undisturbed forest areas. Our results demonstrate the potential utility of high-resolution remote sensing analyses to represent transient land cover changes in model simulations of weather and climate, which are usually undertaken at coarser resolutions and often overlook these changes at the land surface. Key Points Land cover change alters land-atmosphere energy and moisture exchange Forest clearing significantly reduces winter sensible and latent heat fluxes High-resolution land cover change analyses may be useful in synoptic models