Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Environmental science

The rainforest's water pump

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature

View current issue Submit your manuscript

An investigation of naturally occurring water recycling in rainforests finally marries the results of global climate models with observations. Alarmingly, it also suggests that deforestation can greatly reduce tropical rainfall. See Letter p.282

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1: Effect of deforestation on rainfall in the tropics.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper under discussion6 were published online on 5 September 2012.

References

  1. Hansen, M. C., Stehman, S. V. & Potapov, P. V. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 8650–8655 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Eltahir, E. A. & Bras, R. L. Rev. Geophys. 34, 367–378 (1996).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lean, J. & Warrilow, D. A. Nature 342, 411–413 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Shukla, J., Nobre, C. & Sellers, P. Science 247, 1322–1325 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Negri, A. J., Adler, R. F., Xu, L. & Surratt, J. J. Clim. 17, 1306–1319 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Spracklen, D. V., Arnold, S. R. & Taylor, C. M. Nature 489 282–285 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Soares-Filho, B. S. et al. Nature 440, 520–523 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Sampaio, G. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L17709 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Aragão, L. E. O. C. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L07701 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Malhi, Y. et al. Science 319, 169–172 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Davidson, E. A. et al. Nature 481, 321–328 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics. System for Automatic Data Recovery www.sidra.ibge.gov.br (accessed August 2012).

  13. Brazilian Agency for Electric Energy. Energy Generation Database www.aneel.gov.br/aplicacoes/capacidadebrasil/capacidadebrasil.asp (accessed August 2012).

  14. Nepstad, D. et al. Science 326, 1350–1351 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Luiz E. O. C. Aragão is at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK.,

    Luiz E. O. C. Aragão

Authors
  1. Luiz E. O. C. Aragão
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luiz E. O. C. Aragão.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Aragão, L. The rainforest's water pump. Nature 489, 217–218 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11485

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11485

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation