DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmswn
title: Data and code for: Nature-based climate solutions can help mitigate the radiative forcing that follows deforestation

description: Widespread expansion of agriculture and forestry has altered the surface
 of the Earth, the composition of the atmosphere, and as a result, the
 climate. Here we quantify the radiative forcing caused by the
 deforestation of an ecoregion of the U.S. Upper Midwest and the adoption
 of eight nature-based climate solutions. We combined forest inventory data
 with over three decades of remote sensing and in situ data from a
 replicated land use change experiment. Deforestation of the region caused
 net global warming (1626 ± 44 µW m-2), mainly from the 76 % reduction of
 ecosystem carbon stocks, but also from the 84 % reduction of the soil
 methane sink and the 115 % increase in soil nitrous oxide emissions. The
 associated albedo increase offset 24 % of the greenhouse gas induced
 warming. For the adoption of nature-based climate solutions, we found that
 conservation agriculture provided a modest -39 to -76 ± 31 µW m-2 of
 climate mitigation, short/medium length forestry rotations provided more
 at -296 to -881 ± 44 µW m-2, and natural forest regeneration provided the
 most at -1555 ± 44 µW m-2. As the impacts of climate change on nature and
 society intensify, consideration should be given to the climate
 mitigation, habitat, and ecosystem services that nature-based climate
 solutions can provide.
description: # README ### Nature-based climate solutions can help mitigate the
 radiative forcing that follows deforestation **Authors:** Grant Falvo and
 G. Philip Robertson **Affiliations:** Department of Plant, Soil, and
 Microbial Sciences and W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State
 University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824 **Email:**
 [grant.falvo@nau.edu](mailto:grant.falvo@nau.edu) **Author
 Contributions:** GF contributed to the manuscript conception, data
 collection, data analysis, the original manuscript draft, and manuscript
 revisions. GPR contributed to study design, data collection, manuscript
 revisions, and funding acquisition. **Competing Interest Statement:** The
 authors declare no competing interests. **Keywords:** Climate change, land
 use change, nature-based climate solutions, radiative forcing, greenhouse
 gas ### Abstract Widespread expansion of agriculture and forestry has
 altered the surface of the Earth, the composition of the atmosphere, and
 as a result, the climate. Here we quantify the radiative forcing caused by
 the deforestation of an ecoregion of the U.S. Upper Midwest and the
 adoption of eight nature-based climate solutions. We combined forest
 inventory data with over three decades of remote sensing and in situ data
 from a replicated land use change experiment. Deforestation of the region
 caused net global warming (1626 ± 44 µW m-2), mainly from the 76 %
 reduction of ecosystem carbon stocks, but also from the 84 % reduction of
 the soil methane sink and the 115 % increase in soil nitrous oxide
 emissions. The associated albedo increase offset 24 % of the greenhouse
 gas induced warming. For the adoption of nature-based climate solutions,
 we found that conservation agriculture provided a modest -39 to -76 ± 31
 µW m-2 of climate mitigation, short/medium length forestry rotations
 provided more at -296 to -881 ± 44 µW m-2, and natural forest regeneration
 provided the most at -1555 ± 44 µW m-2. As the impacts of climate change
 on nature and society intensify, consideration should be given to the
 climate mitigation, habitat, and ecosystem services that nature-based
 climate solutions can provide. ### This compressed directory contains the
 following files. * Final mean instantaneous radiative forcing for each
 scenario * NBCS_scenario_final_component_RF_means_by_experimental_unit.csv
 * Historical_scenario_final_component_RF_means_by_experimental_unit.csv *
 Land use descriptions found in Table_S1.csv * Metadata found in
 NBCS_and_Historical_scenario_final_component_RF_means_by_experimental_unit_metadata.csv * Code for generating this dataset and the figures and tables in the manuscript found in radiative_forcing_timeseries_generation_script.R * Annual time series of greenhouse gas fluxes and albedo-induced changes to top of atmosphere outgoing shortwave radiation * ghg_and_albedo_timeseries.csv * Metadata found in ghg_and_albedo_timeseries_metadata.csv * Soil N2O and CH4 fluxes * Data found in soil_n2o_ch4_flux_data.csv * Metadata found in soil_n2o_ch4_flux_metadata.csv * NA denotes not applicable * Soil carbon, nitrogen, bulk density, and root biomass * Data found in soil_and_root_data.csv * Metadata found in soil_and_root_metadata.csv * NA denotes not applicable * Land surface albedo * Data found in land_surface_albedo_data.csv * Metadata found in land_surface_albedo_metadata.csv * NA denotes not applicable * Gridded witness tree aboveground biomass * Settlement Aboveground Biomass, Stem Density, and Basal Area, Midwest US, Level1 * Data found at [https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/801601af769fa5acade1ef07f6892bdd](https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/801601af769fa5acade1ef07f6892bdd) * U.S. Forest Inventory Analysis Program * Data acquired with the rFIA R package * Citation found at [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104664](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104664) * Biomass burning and plant species richness * Data acquired from [https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/311](https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/311) and [https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/291](https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/291) * Harvest revenue * Plant data acquired from [https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/51](https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/51), [https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/158](https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/158), [https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/44](https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datatables/44) * Price data acquired from U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service and Michigan Department of Natural Resources [https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/ftp/forestry/tsreports/StumpagePriceReports/](https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/ftp/forestry/tsreports/StumpagePriceReports/)