Changes in regional climate brought about by large-scale deforestation in the eastern lowlands of Central America are affecting weather downwind in the mountains, imperiling ecosystems there.
The so-called cloud forests of Monteverde lie along the crest of Costa Rica’s Cordillera de Tilaran mountains. These habitats rely on the almost perpetual fog that forms as moisture-laden Caribbean winds rise up the eastern slopes of the mountains and pass through altitudes at which clouds condense, says Robert O. Lawton, an ecologist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The humidity in those breezes is enhanced by moisture expelled from the leaves of lowland forests.
By the early 1990s, more than a century of deforestation had left only 18% of the Costa Rican lowland forests east of the peaks untouched. The pastures that replaced forests don’t humidify the winds as well as forests do and are better at warming the atmosphere. As a result, the winds o
A. high up pastures
B. moist air
C. a warmer atmosphere
D. clouds' condensation
Changes in regional climate brought about by large-scale deforestation in the eastern lowlands of Central America are affecting weather downwind in the mountains, imperiling ecosystems there.
The so-called cloud forests of Monteverde lie along the crest of Costa Rica’s Cordillera de Tilaran mountains. These habitats rely on the almost perpetual fog that forms as moisture-laden Caribbean winds rise up the eastern slopes of the mountains and pass through altitudes at which clouds condense, says Robert O. Lawton, an ecologist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The humidity in those breezes is enhanced by moisture expelled from the leaves of lowland forests.
By the early 1990s, more than a century of deforestation had left only 18% of the Costa Rican lowland forests east of the peaks untouched. The pastures that replaced forests don’t humidify the winds as well as forests do and are better at warming the atmosphere. As a result, the winds o
A. large-scale deforestation and the climate changes
B. ecosystems in the eastern lowlands
C. the cloud forests of Monterverde
D. Caribbean winds
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