Albedo changes occurring in stationary forest covers over France during the last decade

Abstract:

Climate warming has caused unprecedented changes in the vegetation cycle of forests. In return, forests play a substantial role on climate by directly modifying the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Besides the shifts occurring in forest architecture and diversity, the climate pressure influences the canopy structure and the leaf physiological characteristics. A direct consequence is the modification of reflectivity properties of the whole canopy. This study examines the evolution of the direct radiative forcing due to the evolution of reflectivity properties of the canopy (canopy albedo). We restrict our analysis to the albedo trends occurring in stationary forest covers over France during the last decade (2001-2013). Satellite surface albedo, LAI (leaf area index), and FCOVER (fraction of vegetation cover) from MODIS (on Terra and Aqua satellites) and BioPar (Bio-geophysical Parameter) projects are used in order to 1/ isolate stationary forest covers, and 2/ detect local tendencies in their canopy albedo. First, the statistical tests were applied to LAI, FCOVER, and surface albedo data over the areas that are classified as forest by ESA-CCI land cover database. In case of temporal break in LAI or FCOVER data series, we assume that the forest was managed at least once during the last decade or the vegetation cover has changed. This hypothesis was verified over the Landes forest in southwestern France, where a major storm damaged 300000 hectares in 2009. This work allowed to isolate relative stationary forest covers that were not managed. Secondly, we show that the visible surface albedo has decreased due to the gradual closing and increase in greenness of some of these forest covers. Finally, we quantified the change in direct radiative forcing due to this shift of surface albedo by using ERA-Interim incoming solar radiation data. The next step will be to better characterize the physiological and structural factors that drive these albedo changes.