2017年5月19日， 國際學術權威刊物自然出版集團旗下子刊《Nature Climate Change》線上發表了北京大學城市與環境學院朴世龍教授的一篇研究論文， 論文揭示了植被變化對全球氣候變暖的影響。 北京大學城市與環境學院博士研究生曾振中為第一作者， 朴世龍教授為通訊作者。
陸地生態系統與氣候系統的相互作用機制是全球變化研究領域的核心內容之一。 氣候變化已對陸地生態系統產生了深刻的影響。 2016年， 北京大學城市與環境學院朴世龍團隊研究發現， 大氣CO2濃度升高等導致1982年以來全球大部分地區陸地植被生長總體呈增加趨勢(Nature Climate Change, 2016, 6, 791-795)。
朴世龍團隊與歐美科學家合作， 首次利用遙感獲取的全球植被葉面積資料驅動地球系統模型， 並結合理論模型， 探討了植被變化對地表能量平衡的影響。 研究發現， 過去30年的陸地植被生長活動增強通過生物地球物理過程減緩了全球氣候變暖， 其降溫效應相當於全球變暖速率觀測值的12%。 這主要由植被變化所引起的地表蒸騰增強、大氣透明度減弱、大氣環流變化所致。 該成果不僅有助於瞭解陸地生態系統變化對氣候系統的回饋作用，
原文連結：
原文摘要：
The surface air temperature response to vegetation changes has been studied for the extreme case of land-cover change1, 2, 3, 4, 5; yet, it has never been quantified for the slow but persistent increase in leaf area index (LAI) observed over the past 30 years (Earth greening)6, 7. Here we isolate the fingerprint of increasing LAI on surface air temperature using a coupled land–atmosphere global climate model prescribed with satellite LAI observations. We find that the global greening has slowed down the rise in global land-surface air temperature by 0.09 ± 0.02 °C since 1982. This net cooling effect is the sum of cooling from increased evapotranspiration (70%), changed atmospheric circulation (44%), decreased shortwave transmissivity (21%), and warming from increased longwave air emissivity (−29%) and decreased albedo (−6%). The global cooling originated from the regions wher LAI has increased, including boreal Eurasia, Europe, India, northwest Amazonia, and the Sahel. Increasing LAI did not, however, significantly change surface air temperature in eastern North America and East Asia, wher the effects of large-scale atmospheric circulation changes mask local vegetation feedbacks. Overall, the sum of biophysical feedbacks related to the greening of the Earth mitigated 12% of global land-surface warming for the past 30 years.