What do you remember of the water cycle?  One of the most comprehensive hydrology studies has been conducted by an interdisciplinary team at University of California at Berkeley.  Researchers include: computer scientists, plant biologists, hydrologists, atmospheric scientists, earth scientists and electrical engineers.  Professor of Integrative Biology, Todd Dawson states that  75%-80% of water is recycled through plants.  As plants disappear, there is less rainfall.   How does this occur?  Much of the earth’s land surface has been substantially modified into areas with far fewer plants.  With fewer plants comes more heating and less rain falls onto the land itself leading to droughts.  Water is redirected to fall over the oceans where rainfall has increased significantly.  Co-director of the Berkeley Institute for Environment, Inez Fung is very concerned with condition. Ironically, the cutting down of the Amazon rain forests (mostly for agriculture) has increased this phenomena. Land use change plus climate change leads to water being redistributed and a lot less of it is available for human use and agriculture.

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

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For more on the water cycle: http://crew.iges.org/