AUSTRALIA鈥檚 rainforests soak up more water than anyone thought. As well as
all that rain, the highest trees鈥攚ith their tips in the
clouds鈥攈arvest 25 per cent extra water in the form of condensation, says
Paul Reddell at CSIRO, Australia鈥檚 national research agency in Atherton,
Queensland.
And trees in cloud forests only lose half as much water to the air as those
in lowland forests, because of the higher humidity. These abundant
water-catchment areas may be threatened, warns Reddell. Over the next 50 years,
global warming could raise the cloudbanks over rainforests by 200 metres,
reducing the area of cloud rainforest by 75 per cent to just 25,000
hectares.