Fig. 2: Variation in carbon storage and albedo change across and within biomes (in megagrams of carbon dioxide equivalents per hectare, MgCO₂e ha⁻¹).

Within biomes, both potential carbon storage (x-axis) and albedo change (y-axis) can vary. These panels depict the consequences of transitioning from the most likely open to forest land cover at every pixel in that biome (irrespective of current land cover or suitability for restoring tree cover). The colors indicate the amount of area with a specific albedo change and carbon combination (see color bar). Pixels that fall along the solid diagonal line have zero net climate impact (albedo offsets carbon storage perfectly). Pixels along the dashed diagonal lines correspond to 50% albedo offset and the horizontal dashed line indicates areas with no albedo offset. We show four biomes with divergent patterns: A a biome where albedo change is of low concern, B a biome where changes in albedo offset much but not all of the climate benefit, C a biome where changes in albedo offset most of the climate benefit, and D a biome where there are both low and high albedo offsets. Source data are provided as a Source data file (see “Data availability”).