Scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Global Ecology department have published a study that found that evaporation from trees has a cooling effect on the climate.
Because water vapor is known to act as a greenhouse gas, scientists were unsure what role evaporation played, but it turns out that evaporation from trees causes low-level clouds to form in the atmosphere, which reflect the sun's rays. The scientists created models that showed that not only did cooling occur locally (which was already known), but that the effect was a global one where tree evaporation created more low-level clouds around the world.
Trees have proven themselves to be great climate regulators and this new finding just adds to the list of reasons to preserve our forests and plant new trees.
via Yale e360
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written by Michael , September 24, 2011
Really? Has the science gotten so dumbed down that we are now using wrong terms for natural processes? I mean technically trees lose some water to evaporation but its only a small percent. The process they are referring is transpiration and its different. In fact its required for the plant draw in carbon dioxide which the ecogeeks love. I suggest looking it up on wikipedia and learning something about plant biology.
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written by Michael, September 24, 2011
I can't imagine where you are drawing these conclusions from unless you read the actual study published in Environmental Research Letters and after reading your analysis I can guarantee you did not. You can read it here for the first time http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/6/3/034032/
If you had some scientific literacy you would find way more places to pull apart this study; such as the fact that its based on a "highly idealized model." However they make it clear that water vapor and heating sources act differently in different conditions.
I do hope the blog owners realize that these types of comments are written either by automatic bots or amazon mechanical turk writers being paid percentages of cents per word to throw off the discussion about global warming and make it seem like there really is some kind of doubt with in the scientific community.
If you had some scientific literacy you would find way more places to pull apart this study; such as the fact that its based on a "highly idealized model." However they make it clear that water vapor and heating sources act differently in different conditions.
I do hope the blog owners realize that these types of comments are written either by automatic bots or amazon mechanical turk writers being paid percentages of cents per word to throw off the discussion about global warming and make it seem like there really is some kind of doubt with in the scientific community.
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written by Goemon, September 25, 2011
I love models, but in this particular case I think a discussion of the actual environmental interactions would be more suitable. I'm not saying Ban-Weiss et al. didn't do a good job in working out the model, but the results look a bit quirky.
There is some documentation on a local increase in albedo through evaporation (Yes, Michael, the water evaporates "from" the leaves of trees. Thus, the statement holds true if "tree" is seen as a locality). The problem is associated with the comparison with mediterranean woods, where observations on large scale albedo changes are rather scarce. Since the Moderate and Continental zones host the majority of the industrialised countries, I'd appreciate some solid studies of those. Picking a suitable study area is getting hard, though.
In any case, additional studies on our ecosystems are more valuable than experimenting with them.
There is some documentation on a local increase in albedo through evaporation (Yes, Michael, the water evaporates "from" the leaves of trees. Thus, the statement holds true if "tree" is seen as a locality). The problem is associated with the comparison with mediterranean woods, where observations on large scale albedo changes are rather scarce. Since the Moderate and Continental zones host the majority of the industrialised countries, I'd appreciate some solid studies of those. Picking a suitable study area is getting hard, though.
In any case, additional studies on our ecosystems are more valuable than experimenting with them.
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written by Chris, September 25, 2011
Trees are so amazingly integral to the world biosphere, and it's very important that protect them as well as we can. This is just another example of how they work to keep Earth functioning in a bio-friendly way. Trees are wonderful organisms and it's one of the reasons I want to do some tree planting volunteer work next summer. The opportunity to give back to the world by adding more trees to the ecosystem is an chance I can't miss.
Great article. Thanks for sharing.
Great article. Thanks for sharing.
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written by Simon, September 25, 2011
The cooling effect of trees is well known. This is hardly ground breaking research. Those academics are now probably busy spending their grants researching whether feces smells bad or not.
One only has to walk into the understory of a rainforest on a hot day to notice the remarkable difference.
One only has to walk into the understory of a rainforest on a hot day to notice the remarkable difference.
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written by Mike, September 26, 2011
I am not an "automatic bot" nor am I "being paid".
This is actually the first time that I have ever done a post on global-warming-related issues, though I have done an awful lot of reading books over the past year. During this time I have become appalled about intolerant the political debate has become around this issue.
Thanks, Michael, for proving my point.
This is actually the first time that I have ever done a post on global-warming-related issues, though I have done an awful lot of reading books over the past year. During this time I have become appalled about intolerant the political debate has become around this issue.
Thanks, Michael, for proving my point.
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written by Pres, October 01, 2011
This kind of makes the So African policy of cutting down trees to save ground water a counterproductive objective?
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written by Mark, November 04, 2011
Trees have a positive impact on global warming? Who would've thought? Really? It probably took a huge government grant, over paid researchers and a tremendous budget to uncover the fact that trees help the environment.
Imagine if all that money was actually used to plant trees that benefited Humanity...
Now, that would be a story worth telling!!
Imagine if all that money was actually used to plant trees that benefited Humanity...
Now, that would be a story worth telling!!
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written by ES, April 20, 2013
There is a new SCIENTIFIC analysis (not empirical and erroneous one) on this subject at the address:
http://sartori-globalwarming.blogspot.com
You will see that many things that are accepted by reviewers and editors do not mean scientific correctness and accuracy, mainly in the "global" warming and climatic changes area. For me, the paper by Ban-Weiss et al is invalid.
http://sartori-globalwarming.blogspot.com
You will see that many things that are accepted by reviewers and editors do not mean scientific correctness and accuracy, mainly in the "global" warming and climatic changes area. For me, the paper by Ban-Weiss et al is invalid.
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