Near-surface atmospheric dynamics of changing crops to forests in the Philippines

Abstract

We explore the effects of changing cropland into forests on the energy and water balances and the consequent changes in near surface atmospheric conditions. We used two regional climate models, RegCM3 and MM5, to simulate a 10-year period using two land-cover scenarios. The first scenario represents current land cover while the second scenario replaces this current land cover with broadleaf trees. Results from both models show that changing cropland areas to forests results in an increase in temperature. This warming is due mainly to increased sensible heat flux with the change in albedo being the dominant factor.