IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-57548-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Co-benefit of forestation on ozone air quality and carbon storage in South China

Author

Listed:
  • Zehui Liu

    (Peking University
    Cambridge)

  • Mi Zhou

    (Princeton University
    Princeton University)

  • Danyang Li

    (Peking University)

  • Tao Song

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    National Earth System Science Data Center)

  • Xu Yue

    (Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology)

  • Xiao Lu

    (Zhuhai)

  • Yuanhong Zhao

    (Ocean University of China)

  • Lin Zhang

    (Peking University
    Peking University)

Abstract

Substantial forestation-induced greening has occurred over South China, affecting the terrestrial carbon storage and atmospheric chemistry. However, these effects have not been systematically quantified due to complex biosphere-atmosphere interactions. Here we integrate satellite observations, forestry statistics, and an improved atmospheric chemistry model to investigate the impacts of forestation on both carbon storage and ozone air quality. We find that forestation alleviates surface ozone via enhanced dry deposition and suppressed turbulence mixing, outweighing the effect of enhanced biogenic emissions. The 2005-2019 greening mitigated the growing season mean surface ozone by 1.4 ± 2.3 ppbv, alleviated vegetation exposure by 15%-41% (depending on ozone metrics) in forests over South China, and increased Chinese forest carbon storage by 1.8 (1.6-2.1) Pg C. Future forestation may enhance carbon storage by 4.3 (3.8-4.8) Pg C and mitigate surface ozone over South China by 1.4 ± 1.2 ppbv in 2050. Air quality management should consider such co-benefits as forestation becomes necessary for carbon neutrality.

Suggested Citation

  • Zehui Liu & Mi Zhou & Danyang Li & Tao Song & Xu Yue & Xiao Lu & Yuanhong Zhao & Lin Zhang, 2025. "Co-benefit of forestation on ozone air quality and carbon storage in South China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-57548-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57548-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57548-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-57548-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-57548-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.