Biotic Regulation: News

Publications: Biotic pump paper in Theoretical and Applied Climatology

Saturday, 28 Apr 2012 01:00:00 +0300

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. Revisiting forest impact on atmospheric water vapor transport and precipitation. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, doi: 10.1007/s00704-012-0643-9.

Water cycle on land owes itself to the atmospheric moisture transport from the ocean. Properties of the aerial rivers that ensure the "run-in" of water vapor inland to compensate for the gravitational "run-off" of liquid water from land to the ocean are of direct relevance for the regional water availability. The biotic pump concept clarifies why the moist aerial rivers flow readily from ocean to land when the latter gives home to a large forest -- and why they are reluctant to do so when the forest is absent.

Compared to our previous studies, in the new paper we used a global (rather than land only) precipitation database that allows one to compare precipitation patterns on land to those over the adjacent ocean. We extended our previous approach to analyze seasonal (rather than annual only) changes in the spatial precipitation patterns in world's major forest regions. Apart from the tropical rainforests, we analyzed precipitation distribution across world's longest (>7,000 km) forest belt, the Eurasian boreal forest. The data describe how the active summer forest wins the water "tug-of-war" with the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, in summer the forest steals most moisture inland and depletes the oceanic precipitation. The dormant winter forest loses this war to the ocean, such that precipitation over the Atlantic Ocean in winter, despite the oceanic evaporation is minimal, rises threefold compared to summer months. Analyzed for comparison, the unforested Australia is unable to draw moisture far inland in either wet or dry season, i.e., irrespective of moisture availability over the neighboring ocean.

While it is increasingly common to blame global change for any regional water cycle disruption, the biotic pump evidence suggests that the burden of responsibility rather rests with the regional land use practices. On large areas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, temperate and boreal forests are intensely harvested for timber and biofuel. These forests are artificially maintained in the early successional stages and are never allowed to recover to the natural climax state. The water regulation potential of such forests is low, while their susceptibility to fires and pests is high. The exploited forests are degrading; the relatively undisturbed old-growth forests are shrinking in size. A conflict (rarely appreciated or discussed) exists between the modern commercial value of a forest and the forest's ability to regulate the regional water cycle and to be self-sustainable: these parameters cannot be maximized simultaneously. Therefore, the regional water safety is not about keeping the live forest biomass stationary. It is about keeping it stationary in an environmentally competent condition.

Please, visit http://www.bioticregulation.ru/ab.php?id=taac to download the text, the Electronic Appendix, as well as to have a look at some animated graphs. This paper can be discussed on our blog.

Biotic pump: Forests as rainmakers: interview to mongabay.com

Sunday, 5 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0300

Biotic Pump Overview 2012: Interview to Mongabay.com

Full text with editorial summary: Jeremy Hance mongabay.com (February 01, 2012).
New meteorological theory argues that the world's forests are rainmakers.
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0201-hance_interview_bioticpump.html

1.>> Will you tell us how the biotic pump works?
2.>> Why do you associate the biotic pump with natural forests rather than with individual tree species? Cannot a tree plantation act as biotic pump?
3.>> Have there been any significant changes to your biotic pump theory over the last couple of years?
4.>> Have you seen wider acceptance in the scientific community for your theory?
5.>> Can you give an example of why the current understanding of condensation and precipitation is wrong?
6.>> Recent evidence has linked the decline and fall of the Maya civilization to deforestation leading to less precipitation. How could the biotic pump theory connect to this?
7.>> How do you see deforestation in the Amazon as impacting regional precipitation?
8.>> How do you think widespread deforestation will effect the hydrological cycle of places like the Indonesian islands? Given their smaller size, do they need the biotic pump?
9.>> Does the biotic pump theory apply to boreal forests, such as those in Russia, as well?
10.>> Does biotic pump theory modify our current understanding of global climate change?
11.>> What policy changes does the biotic theory suggest for governments worldwide?

The interview can be discussed on our blog.

BR for Everyone: Russian spring. The voices of bog

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:00:00 +0300

In the end of 2011 we marked ten years of the biotic regulation presence in the Internet. (Our first web site is still working, as we moving all the older stuff here very slowly.) To celebrate this occasion we are happy to share with our readers our record of a Russian spring symphony. Have you ever heard what happens on a northern bog in spring? You are welcome to listen. These voices have been there for several millions of years (the average species lifetime).

Publications: "Ecological requirements versus cultural landscape opportunities in Homo sapiens" and more

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:00:00 +0300

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2011) Have ecological human rights been globally lost? A conflict of ecological spatial requirements and cultural landscape opportunities in the modern Homo sapiens. "Landscape Ecology in Asian Cultures" (Eds. Hong S.-K., Wu J., Kim J.-E., Nakagoshi N.) Ecological Research Monographs, 2011, Part I, 129-137.

Interview to mongabay.com "Is the Russian forest code a warning for Brazil?"

Documentary "Amazonia Amenazada" ("Amazonia under Threat") with introduction of the biotic pump concept (Telesur, Venezuela).

Our paper Where do winds come from? may be eyeing a Guiness record having now been under review for 20 (twenty) months. Whenever we approach the journal, the reply is that they are doing their best. We are positive, after all the fact that 20 months have not been enough to reject a paper suggests it might be indeed a thought-provoking one.