Abstract
Protected areas (PAs), thermal refuges for biodiversity, are increasingly under pressure from urbanization. Gaps remain in how urbanization worldwide influences the thermal environment of PAs. Here, we quantify urban pressure on protected forests as a distance-weighted built-up intensity. The thermal impacts of urban pressure are assessed by comparing satellite-derived mean land surface temperature (LST) and thermal extremes inferred by the 90th-percentile maximum LST of protected forests within and beyond a 5-km buffer zone outside urban boundaries. We show that the global mean distance between urban areas and PAs has decreased by over one-third (12.82 km) since 1990, increasing urban pressure on protected forests by about 2.56%. Urbanization alters thermal environments by elevating LST, and the frequency and intensity of thermal extremes, with the highest impact on annual mean daily LST (0.63 °C) and intensity of thermal extremes (0.81 °C) in tropical protected forests. We highlight the need to integrate urban development and conservation planning to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
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Funding
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42405119 and 42261144754). Y.Z. was supported in part by the HKU-100 Scholars Fund of The University of Hong Kong. P.D.F. was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (ERC Consolidator Grant CanopyChange 101124948).
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Huang, A., Xu, X., Jia, G. et al. Forests in protected areas worldwide face increased thermal pressure from urbanization.
Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-76226-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-76226-8
Source: Ecology - nature.com
