Land Use Change Impacts on Air Quality and Climate

Abstract:

Both natural and anthropogenic land use change can dramatically alter the biosphere, thus impacting sources and sinks of gases and particles to the atmosphere. Land use change is a critical element of global change that will both drive and respond to climate change. Here we focus on the impact of land use change on short-lived pollutants (ozone and aerosols). We synthesize previous studies to estimate that historical land use change has likely led to a global mean aerosol cooling equivalent to 15-35% of the radiative forcing driven by anthropogenic emissions. This cooling is likely to continue through the 21^st century, but is subject to large uncertainties associated with future agricultural practices and fire activity.