Publication Date:
2014-11-15
Description:
Increased catchment erosion and nutrient loading are commonly recognized impacts of deforestation on global wetlands. In contrast, an increase in water availability in deforested catchments is well known in modern studies but is rarely considered when evaluating past human impacts. We used a Budyko water balance approach, a meta-analysis of global wetland response to deforestation, and paleoecological studies from Australasia to explore this issue. After complete deforestation, we demonstrated that water available to wetlands increases by up to 15% of annual precipitation. This can convert ephemeral swamps to permanent lakes or even create new wetlands. This effect is globally significant, with 9 to 12% of wetlands affected, including 20 to 40% of Ramsar wetlands, but is widely unrecognized because human impact studies rarely test for it.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Woodward, C -- Shulmeister, J -- Larsen, J -- Jacobsen, G E -- Zawadzki, A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Nov 14;346(6211):844-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1260510.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Chamberlain Building, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, 4072 Queensland, Australia. c.woodward1@uq.edu.au. ; School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Chamberlain Building, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, 4072 Queensland, Australia. ; Institute for Environmental Research, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC 2232, New South Wales, Australia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25395535" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Australia
;
Climate
;
*Conservation of Natural Resources
;
Humans
;
Lakes
;
New Zealand
;
*Water Supply
;
*Wetlands
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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