More plants make more rain
Satellite observations suggest vegetation encourages rainfall in Africa.
More rain makes for more plant growth: that much is obvious. But now a statistical study of satellite images has added weight to the reverse notion: more plants also make for more rain.
Read the story here.
Comments
The French writer Jean Giono wrote in 1953 a novel called "L'homme qui plantait des arbres" (the man who planted trees). It tells the story of a sheperd in the Southern Alps who, every day, planted acorns in the dry, rocky soil. He died before seeing the forest grow and change not only the landscape but also the weather.
The role of trees as modifiers of climate is known to all. In the US, it is personified by Johnny Appleseed. In India, by Abdul Karim. Israel has proven it on a large scale. The money spent on this research would have been better spent on efforts to replant and preserve.
Posted by: Emmanuel M | September 26, 2006 03:46 PM
Perhaps the Brits, for want of a historical tree-planting role model, had to resort to scientific research to re-learn this. They even formed a center to study it, the CLASSIC.
What next, a UK institute for the study of the conservation of the mass(RNSPRNSC Institute, from "rien ne se perd, rien ne se cree")? An Irish association for the promotion of potatoes (the Parmentier Institute)? An English Center for the advancement of the internal combustion engine (the Henri Ford center, maybe)?
I vote to rename the CLASSIC the Johnny Appleseed center.
Posted by: Joaquim R | September 27, 2006 03:40 PM
It is significant that the above comments have to resort to fiction and (misinterpreted) folklore to find evidence for the vegetation-precipitation feedback. In any case Johnny's appleseeds were more about promoting cultural change than climate. The chief point of this research is to establish, for the first time by observation, not only that this effect exists but to put bounds on its significance to regional rainfall. A great deal more research is needed of course, to integrate these findings with coupled land/atmosphere models, and quantify this feedback globally.
Posted by: Dr Peter North | September 30, 2006 11:38 AM