Mediterranean strictly protected forests are cooler

作者：Francesco Solano, Chiara Mansi, Michele Baliva, Daniele Canestrelli, Alessandro Chiarucci, Raffaele Manicone, Maurizio Maugeri, Giuseppe Modica, Jordan Palli, Giovanni Quilghini, Gianluca Piovesan · 发表于：Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110858 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Tree-ring climate responses、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Land Use and Ecosystem Services

• Forest rewilding in Mediterranean strictly protected areas significantly mitigates heatwaves. • Strictly protected forests restored a major temperature buffer and ecosystem resilience. • Canopy of strictly protected forest is 2.1 °C cooler in summer than productive one. • On equal topography and forest attributes, productive forest areas are 1 °C warmer. • This study highlights distinctive long-term ecological benefits of forest rewilding. Forests are essential for climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. While the thermal buffering role of old-growth forests is well known, the long-term cooling benefits of restored forests in strictly protected areas remain poorly understood, particularly in the Mediterranean region – a biodiversity hotspot severely affected by climate change. In this paper, we examined summer maximum canopy temperatures using satellite observations across a Mediterranean forest landscape in Tuscany (Italy) during the period 2013–2023. Our analysis focused on topographic and forest attributes influencing temperature variations among evergreen oak stands under different IUCN management categories (Ia and V) compared to coppiced stands outside protected areas. The Ia site, legally established in 1961, is the first strictly protected reserve in the coastal Mediterranean. We observed measurable differences in canopy cooling at the mesoclimatic scale among strictly protected (IUCN Ia), protected landscape (IUCN V), and productive forests. Unmanaged stands ...