The Importance of Trees in the Hydrological Cycle

Can you imagine that something so simple and necessary to survival has been forgotten in place of greed? Just to mention however, there are developing countries now employing agroforestry in line with growing crops which balances water kept in the soil as well as providing much needed nutrients through the root systems. This can help in drought stricken areas, which is where the Moringa tree comes in. In Malawi, this is not only providing relief from drought but also giving people, particularly women the chance to make a living as well as providing trees that purify water and provide food and medicine. Nature is truly a miracle and we need to get back to delving into its mysteries... if we do that we will find answers to what ails the world we are making out of our apathy, greed and ignorance.

I'll also try to find more on this. I posted on it a while ago but can't find that link.

Oh, and I voted you back up.

You don't vote down trees, cowards.

My sentiments exactly.
The recurring mystery is how nearly a generation has passed and a vast sea of humanity seems as just as clueless and inert as they were before all the impacts of the systematic insensate greed was obvious in every area of their lives.

One wonders how much each one has to actually be choking in toxic waste before they take any kind of action.

I keep planting trees but I don't count on seeing any evidence of a vast change among my fellow hungry monkeys in my lifetime.

Most commentators bewail the danger to the existing system.
I've come to the point where I'm looking forward to its collapse.

Awesome and highly interesting post! I enjoyed this and look forward to researching further info as well on the topic.

Good post coolplanet. Here's a few peripheral thoughts. One fact that many people are not aware of is that animals (us) exhale most of the O2 they had just inhaled. Has to do with a narrow range O2 vs CO2 balance our lungs have to observe at all times for us to live. We use a fraction of what the trees produce, so what they produce (O2) goes a great deal farther. Animal lungs do not thoroughly burn up oxygen like combustion engines that compresses the O2 prior to explosion.

If more of the ocean water was evaporated we would recover a great amount of land... so this planet could support many more than 7 billion people. If those people were also vegetarians there would be a great deal more oxygen not being used up by domestic food animals. So without stretching too far this planet could sustain easily over 25,000,000,000 (billion) people were it done properly. We will likely still eat fish and seafood, and certainly healthy plankcton. Jellyfish have been found to be excellent for restoring our mental faculties (see product from: Prevagen).

Mammals eating other mammals is akin to cows eating cows, which is known to contribute to Mad Cow Disease, so perhaps we need much more seafood and MUCH LESS COWS. Just a thought. And more California walnuts!!!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Environment/Fewer-trees-less-rain-study-uncovers-defo...

Fewer Trees, Less Rain: Study Uncovers Deforestation Equation

Australian scientists say they have found proof that cutting down forests reduces rainfall.

The finding, independent of previous anecdotal evidence and computer modelling, uses physics and chemistry to show how the climate changes when forests are lost.

Ann Henderson-Sellers, director of environment at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, at Lucas Heights, and Dr Kendal McGuffie, from the University of Technology, Sydney, made the discovery by analysing variations in the molecular structure of rain along the Amazon River.

Not all water, Professor Henderson-Sellers said, was made from the recipe of two atoms of "common" hydrogen and one of "regular" oxygen.

About one in every 500 water molecules had its second hydrogen atom replaced by a heavier version called deuterium. And one in every 6500 molecules included a heavy version of the oxygen atom.

Knowing the ratio allowed scientists to trace the Amazon's water as it flowed into the Atlantic, evaporated, blew back inland with the trade winds to fall again as rain, and finally returned to the river.

"It's as if the water was tagged," she said.

While the heavier water molecules were slower to evaporate from rivers and groundwater, they were readily given off by the leaves of plants and trees, through transpiration.

"Transpiration pumps these heavy guys back into the atmosphere."

But the study showed that since the 1970s the ratio of the heavy molecules found in rain over the Amazon and the Andes had declined significantly.

The only possible explanation was that they were no longer being returned to the atmosphere to fall again as rain because the vegetation was disappearing. "With many trees now gone and the forest degraded, the moisture that reaches the Andes has clearly lost the heavy isotopes that used to be recycled so effectively," Professor Henderson-Sellers said.

Tom Lyons, professor of environmental sciences at Perth's Murdoch University, said there was now "certainly very strong evidence that changes in surface conditions have an impact on the climate. In some parts of the world the impact is very marked". The Amazon research "helps us understand the mechanism".

Professor Henderson-Sellers said the average water molecule fell as rain and re-evaporated fives times during its journey from the tropical Atlantic to the river's starting point in the Andes mountains. Forests played a vital role in keeping the heavy molecules, and their far more common relatives, moving through the water cycle.

"People will tell you that when you remove the forests it rains less," she said, adding, however, such anecdotal evidence, and even computer modelling, did not convince everyone.

"This is the first demonstration that deforestation has an observable impact on rainfall."

http://current.com/http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~dmh/WEBSITE-Timelapse/index.html

Check out this great time lapse site!
It includes dozens of beautiful videos of evapotranspiration.