Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Perennial grasses are an option to mitigate global warming, increase energy security, and alleviate environmental pressures within agricultural landscapes. Their cultivation alters near-surface temperature in ways that are still largely unclear. Here, a regional climate model with an enhanced representation of perennial grasses shows that converting today’s cropland areas in Europe induces annual mean temperature reductions in summer and autumn (up to –1 °C), which are primarily driven by a later harvest of perennial grasses relative to annual crops. Cultivation of perennial grasses where they deliver stronger biogeophysical cooling can achieve a similar annual mean temperature reduction on half of the land. This cooling can counteract up to 50% of the projected future warming and it is three times larger than what is achieved via carbon emission reductions. A sustainable deployment of perennial grasses has the potential to link global mitigation objectives with co-benefits for the local climate and environment.
Institution: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,290
OpenAlex ID: W4405580132