1. Can logging in equatorial Africa affect adjacent parks?
- Author
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Roy, Somnath Baidya, Walsh, Peter D., and Lichstein, Jeremy W.
- Subjects
- *
DEFORESTATION , *ENVIRONMENTAL degradation , *LOGGING , *RAINFALL , *THUNDERSTORMS - Abstract
This article informs that tropical deforestation can cause fundamental regional-scale shifts in vegetation structure and diversity in Africa. Deforestation induces a broad suite of changes in land-surface properties that can act either competitively or synergistically to determine precipitation patterns. For example, replacing forests with grasslands reduces evapotranspiration, and, thus, there is less moisture to fall as rain. However, less evapotranspiration also acts to warm surface air, resulting in increased convection and subsequent thunderstorms.
- Published
- 2005
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