Scientists project a drier Amazon and wetter Indonesia in the future
April 27, 2018, University of California, Irvine
Climate models predict that an increase in greenhouse gases will dry out the Amazon rainforest in the future while causing wetter conditions in the woodlands of Africa and Indonesia. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have identified an unexpected but major factor in this worldwide precipitation shift: the direct response of the forests themselves to higher levels of carbon dioxide.
"People tend to think that most of the disruption will come from heat going into the oceans, which, in turn, will alter wind patterns," said James Randerson, UCI's Ralph J. & Carol M. Cicerone Chair in Earth System Science. "We have found that large-scale changes in rainfall can, in part, be attributed to the way tropical forests respond to the overabundance of carbon dioxide humans are emitting into the atmosphere, particularly over dense forests in the Amazon and across Asia."
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-04-scientists-drier-amazon-wetter-indonesia.html#jCp
