http://DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo0119
A study led by scientists from the CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics, iNanjing University of Information Science and Technology, the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre Europe (UNEP-WCMC Europe) and the Forest & Nature Lab at Ghent University in Belgium it turned out that, as compared to nonprotected areas that are often disturbed or converted to other land uses, protected areas of natural and seminatural vegetation effectively cool the land surface temperature. In particular, they cool the local daily maximum temperature in the tropics, and reduce diurnal and seasonal temperature ranges in boreal and temperate regions. Vegetation in protected areas has a higher amount of foliage in the canopy than in nonprotected areas even of the same vegetation type, which modulates local temperatures through physiological and biophysical processes.