Credit: Treehugger.com

Deforestation of tropical forests in the world’s southern hemisphere is threatening world food production by distorting rainfall patterns across the rest of the globe, a study has indicated.

The deforestation is accelerating global warming and could result in changing rainfall patterns across Europe, the U.S. Midwest and China, researchers said.

In addition, tropical regions in Southeast Asia, Central Africa and the Amazon region of South America could see a 15 percent drop in rainfall by 2050, the study authors reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.

“When you deforest the tropics, those regions will experience significant warming and the biggest drying,” study leader Deborah Lawrence of the University of Virginia said.

Most deforestation is done to provide cleared land for agriculture, but the cutting down of trees and the planting of crops releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which adds to global warming, the researchers said.

Crops are also less efficient in retaining moisture than forests, with immediate effects on local weather.

“Tropical forests are often talked about as the ‘lungs of the […]