Land Cover Changes Affecting US Climate

Researches have found that the changing land cover across the US in the last 300 years has had a measurable effect on the summer temperatures across the country.

The researchers found land cover changes produced a significant cooling effect of more than one degree Fahrenheit in parts of the Great Plains and Midwest as agriculture expanded and replaced grasslands. Farmlands tend to create lower temperatures through increased evaporation. A warming effect was found along the Atlantic coast where croplands replaced forests.

www.gsfc.nasa.gov...