| ABSTRACT | Land cover changes play a crucial role in the land-atmosphere interactions and thus in climate, through their ability to modulate the exchange of energy and water fluxes between the land-surface and the atmosphere. In this study we use a coupled atmosphere-land model, WRF-CLM, to investigate the biogeophysical impact of an idealized land cover change on the Mediterranean climate. More specifically, we compare the climate of a maximally forested landscape with the climate of a fully covered by grass landscape, isolating the net impact of this type of conversion on regional climate. The replacement of forests with grass induces a cooling throughout the year in areas with high altitude (Alps, Pyrenees etc) due to an increase in the surface albedo. The decrease of surface temperature is largest in winter and spring, when these regions are snow-covered, since the deforestation exposes, the very reflective to solar radiation, snow underneath, thus reducing the net radiation at the surface and consequently lowering the upper air temperature. On the other hand, the deforestation in lowland and coastal areas results in a warming, due to a reduction in turbulent fluxes and surface roughness, which tend to dry and warm the boundary layer. Our results are in line with the existing bibliography and highlight the important climatic role that each type of forest vegetation have in Mediterranean region. |