Land surface effects on climate are wide-ranging and vary by region. Deforestation and exploitation of
natural landscapes play a significant role. Some of these environmental changes are similar to those caused by the
effects of global warming.[1][2][3]
25-50% of the rainfall in the Amazon basin comes from the forest, and if deforestation reaches 30-40% most of the Amazon basin will enter a permanent dry climate.[14] In another article published by Nature, it points out that tropical deforestation can lead to large reductions in observed precipitation.[15]
This concept of land-atmosphere feedback is common among
permaculturists, such as
Masanobu Fukuoka, who, in his book, The One Straw Revolution, said "rain comes from the ground, not the sky."[16][17]
Deforestation, and conversion of grasslands to desert, may also lead to cooling of the regional climate. This is because of the
albedo effect (sunlight reflected by bare ground) during the day, and rapid radiation of heat into space at night, due to the lack of
vegetation and
atmospheric moisture.[18]
A rain shadow is a dry area on the leeward side of a mountainous area (away from the wind). The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them. Wind and moist air is drawn by the prevailing winds towards the top of the mountains, where it condenses and precipitates before it crosses the top. In an effect opposite that of orographic lift, the air, without much moisture left, advances behind the mountains creating a drier side called the "rain shadow".[citation needed]
A föhn or foehn is a type of dry, warm, down-slope wind that occurs in the
lee (downwind side) of a mountain range.[citation needed]
It is a
rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent
adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes (seeorographic lift). As a consequence of the different adiabatic
lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the
windward slopes. Föhn winds can raise
temperatures by as much as 14 °C (25 °F)[20] in just a matter of minutes. Central Europe enjoys a warmer climate due to the Föhn, as moist winds off the Mediterranean Sea blow over the
Alps.[citation needed]
^Peter Greve; Boris Orlowsky; Brigitte Mueller; Justin Sheffield; Markus Reichstein & Sonia I. Seneviratne (2014). "Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land". Nature Geoscience. 7 (10): 716–721.
Bibcode:
2014NatGe...7..716G.
doi:
10.1038/ngeo2247.
^1978 [1975 Sep.] – The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming, translators Chris Pearce, Tsune Kurosawa and Larry Korn, Rodale Press.