Spatiotemporal patterns of surface temperature response to forest harvesting in Europe

Abstract European forests have been intensively managed for the provision of renewable materials and are a valuable asset for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity conservation. Forest harvesting fundamentally alters the physical structure and composition of forests, with consequences for climate regulation services. It can impact the land surface temperature (LST) both diurnally and seasonally, but the net LST impact of historical forest harvesting activities in Europe is as yet unknown. This study integrates satellite-derived data for LSTs and forest harvesting for the period 2004–2023 to unravel spatial and temporal patterns of the surface temperature response to harvesting disturbances in Europe. We find a consistent diurnal asymmetry: harvesting induces daytime warming alongside nighttime cooling across all seasons and forest types. However, the magnitude, net effect, and temporal evolution have strong heterogeneity. Regionally, daytime warming dominates in Southern Europe (+0.075 ± 0.007 °C, mean ± standard error; +0.719 °C at the 90th percentile), peaking in the summer (+0.103 ± 0.010 °C; +0.823 °C), while Eastern Europe shows the strongest annual nighttime cooling (−0.060 ± 0.005 °C; −0.937 °C). The response is weaker in Western Europe. Seasonally, net daily cooling prevails in the spring, whereas net warming dominates in the summer. The forest composition modulates the response: needleleaf forests show the strongest diurnal contrast, broadleaf forests exhibit the weakest daytime signal, and mixed forests display spring daytime cooling. After harvesting, most regions transition from initial postharvest warming toward longer-term cooling or neutrality after one or two decades, with the postharvest pattern varying regionally and by forest type. Overall, this study elucidates strong spatiotemporal variations in net microclimate responses to forest harvesting across Europe, driven by geography, seasonality, and forest composition. By explicitly characterizing how forest harvesting alters surface temperature across space and time, these findings contribute to improved region-specific forest management strategies that can better balance timber production with climate regulation and biodiversity conservation under changing environmental conditions.