Changes to the vegetation cover of land surfaces constitutes the biggest cause of increasing carbon dioxide emissions after the use of fossil fuels.
Particularly in Africa, forests and bushland are continuously cleared for the requirements of farming and food security. The climate effects of forest loss have been extensively investigated, but now new information on the significance of bushlands in the prevention of climate change has also been uncovered.
A recently completed doctoral dissertation at Earth Change Observation Laboratory of the University of Helsinki posits that converting bushland into agricultural land raises land surface temperatures almost as much as forest loss. Clearing bushland for cultivation also reduces the carbon stocks held by the above ground vegetation and carbon is also released into the atmosphere from the soil when preparing it for crops.
The consequences result in warming microclimates. Once the process is replicated in the neighbouring hectares, square kilometres, counties and throughout Eastern Africa, the consequences start affecting the climate of the entire continent.
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