HR: 12:15h
AN: B31G-08    [PDF]
TI: Teleconnections Between Tropical Deforestation and Midlatitude Precipitation
AU: * Avissar, R
EM: avissar@duke.edu
AF: Duke University, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Box 90287, Durham, NC 27708-0287 United States
AU: Werth, D
EM: werth@duke.edu
AF: Duke University, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Box 90287, Durham, NC 27708-0287 United States
AB: Past studies have indicated that total deforestation of Amazonia would result in an important reduction of the rainfall in that region, but that this process had no significant impact on the global temperature or precipitation and had only local implications. Here, we show that deforestation of tropical regions activates Rossby waves, which affect significantly precipitation at mid-latitudes by 'teleconnections'. In particular, we find that the deforestation of Amazonia and Central Africa severely reduces rainfall in the US Midwest during spring and summer, when water is crucial for agriculture in that region. Deforestation of South-East Asia reduces winter precipitation in the Western US and, consequently, the water storage that is released from snow melting later in the spring.
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 3319 General circulation
DE: 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting