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Widespread land surface cooling from paddy rice cultivation revealed by global satellite mapping

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Abstract

Paddy rice exacerbates climate warming through greenhouse gas emissions but also cools the land surface by enhancing evapotranspiration. While the former effect has received extensive attention, the biophysical cooling effect remains poorly quantified, partly due to the lack of high-quality global paddy rice data. Here, we address this gap by developing a universal rice mapping framework that integrates the strengths of phenology-based and curve-matching methods to construct the global, long-term rice dataset (GlobalRice500) with daily temporal and 500 m spatial resolution. Our analysis reveals that paddy fields annually reduce daytime land surface temperature by 0.21 ((pm)0.0057)–0.27 ((pm)0.0063) °C during the growing season compared to other croplands, with stronger cooling observed in larger fields and partial spillover to surrounding landscapes. These findings provide robust evidence of the surface cooling effect of paddy rice and call for a comprehensive evaluation of its role in climate regulation.

Data availability

The GlobalRice50031 dataset generated in this study have been deposited in the Zenodo database (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17460919). The mean values and uncertainty quantification underlying the Figures generated in this study are provided in the Supplementary Information and Source Data file. Publicly available data used in this study are referenced. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The MPD_DTW30 code is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17679402. The source code is freely available for non-commercial research and educational purposes, provided that proper attribution is given. Modification and redistribution are permitted under the same conditions. Commercial use of the software is strictly prohibited.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42171314) and the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2023YFD2300300).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil Pollution Control and Safety, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Wei Weng & Jingfeng Huang

  2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecological Health, Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Wei Weng & Jingfeng Huang

  3. Institute of Applied Remote Sensing and Information Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Wei Weng, Jingfeng Huang, Zhenhao Lyu, Yuanjun Xiao & Shengcheng Li

  4. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China

    Chao Yue

  5. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Control, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China

    Chao Yue

  6. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China

    Chao Yue

  7. School of Automation, Xiasha Higher Education Zone, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China

    Ran Huang

  8. Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Dailiang Peng

  9. Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Forest Ecosystem Protection and Restoration of Poyang Lake Watershed, College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China

    Chao Huang

  10. National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda

    Florent Bigirimana

  11. College of Computer and Information Technology, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei, China

    Li Liu

  12. Department of Geography and Spatial Information Techniques, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China

    Weiwei Liu

Authors

  1. Wei Weng
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  2. Jingfeng Huang
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Contributions

J.H. proposed the research idea. W.W. and J.H. designed the research. W.W. led the experiments and wrote the first draft. C.Y. provided theoretical guidance. Z.L., S.L., R.H., and F.B. contributed to data collection. W.W. and Z.L. performed data preprocessing. Y.X. provided technical support. Y.X., D.P., C.H., L.L., and W. L. contributed to the interpretation and the preparation of the manuscript. W.W., C.Y., and J.H. led the revisions. All authors reviewed and approved the final paper.

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Jingfeng Huang.

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Nature Communications thanks Anne Gobin and the other, anonymous, reviewer for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.

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Weng, W., Huang, J., Yue, C. et al. Widespread land surface cooling from paddy rice cultivation revealed by global satellite mapping.
Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67549-z

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