Increasing tropical forest fragmentation intensifies extreme high temperatures
- 1Fudan University
- 2Nanjing University
Abstract
Deforestation, as one of the most pressing global environmental challenges, can intensify local temperature extremes through altering surface properties (e.g. albedo, roughness and evapotranspiration) and the associated land–atmosphere interactions. Prior studies have largely focused on the effects of forest cover changes at the grid scale, whereas the impact of subgrid-scale changes in forest fragmentation has received relatively limited attention. Utilizing satellite-based forest fragmentation index (FFI) data and the ERA5-Land reanalysis data, we investigate impacts of FFI changes in tropical forests on local extreme temperature indices, including the annual mean and maximum values of daily maximum temperature (TXm and TXx, respectively). Our results show that increasing FFI (i.e. forests becoming more fragmented) can significantly intensify extreme temperatures, with each unit increase in FFI corresponding to increases of 0.35 °C –1.14 °C for TXm and 0.83 °C –2.85 °C for TXx. These phenomena are mainly attributed to fragmentation-induced shifts in surface energy partitioning, which reduce latent heat flux and enhance sensible heating. The sensitivities of extreme temperatures to increasing FFI vary by region, with its strength being strongest in the Congo Basin (1.14 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXm and 2.85 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXx) but weaker in the Amazon basin (0.58 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXm and 1.21 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXx) and Southeast Asia (0.35 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXm and 0.83 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXx). These regional differences result from that background hydroclimatic conditions and land–atmosphere coupling strength can modulate the effect of forest fragmentation changes on extreme temperatures. These findings highlight the important role of increasing forest fragmentation in amplification of local temperature extremes, with implications for developing forest management strategies aimed at enhancing resilience to extreme climate events under ongoing warming.
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BibTeX
@article{du2026increasing,
title = {{Increasing tropical forest fragmentation intensifies extreme high temperatures}},
author = {Ran Du and Xin Wang and Jun Ge and Yanhong Gao},
journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aeaa6f},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeaa6f},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Increasing tropical forest fragmentation intensifies extreme high temperatures
AU - Ran Du
AU - Xin Wang
AU - Jun Ge
AU - Yanhong Gao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Environmental Research Letters
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/aeaa6f
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeaa6f
AB - Deforestation, as one of the most pressing global environmental challenges, can intensify local temperature extremes through altering surface properties (e.g. albedo, roughness and evapotranspiration) and the associated land–atmosphere interactions. Prior studies have largely focused on the effects of forest cover changes at the grid scale, whereas the impact of subgrid-scale changes in forest fragmentation has received relatively limited attention. Utilizing satellite-based forest fragmentation index (FFI) data and the ERA5-Land reanalysis data, we investigate impacts of FFI changes in tropical forests on local extreme temperature indices, including the annual mean and maximum values of daily maximum temperature (TXm and TXx, respectively). Our results show that increasing FFI (i.e. forests becoming more fragmented) can significantly intensify extreme temperatures, with each unit increase in FFI corresponding to increases of 0.35 °C –1.14 °C for TXm and 0.83 °C –2.85 °C for TXx. These phenomena are mainly attributed to fragmentation-induced shifts in surface energy partitioning, which reduce latent heat flux and enhance sensible heating. The sensitivities of extreme temperatures to increasing FFI vary by region, with its strength being strongest in the Congo Basin (1.14 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXm and 2.85 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXx) but weaker in the Amazon basin (0.58 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXm and 1.21 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXx) and Southeast Asia (0.35 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXm and 0.83 °C unit ⁻¹ for TXx). These regional differences result from that background hydroclimatic conditions and land–atmosphere coupling strength can modulate the effect of forest fragmentation changes on extreme temperatures. These findings highlight the important role of increasing forest fragmentation in amplification of local temperature extremes, with implications for developing forest management strategies aimed at enhancing resilience to extreme climate events under ongoing warming.
SN - 1748-9326
ER -