One of the most pressing problems facing the environment is deforestation, which favors the advance of deserts throughout the world, which are very poor ecosystems from a flora and fauna perspective, which makes these spaces even more difficult. may be fit for life. Traditionally it had been thought that in these desert areas it was the absence of rain that caused the absence of vegetation. However, there is increasing certainty that, in reality, it is the absence of dense forest masses that causes the lack of rain, since forests are presented as one of the main regulators of our planet’s climate. If you want to know why few clouds form in desert areas, and understand the importance that the masses of plants and trees have in regulating the presence or absence of rain, keep reading AgroCorrn and we will tell you about it.
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What are they and where do the clouds come from?
When we ask ourselves about the formation of cloud masses , the main answer we find is in the sea. Sea and ocean water evaporates due to heat, rises to the atmosphere and, when it cools, it condenses and falls as rain or snow, depending on the specific temperature of the place where it falls. Next, the water from the rainfall reaches the rivers, where it continues its natural course until it returns to the sea and, in this way, the cycle begins again. Although the water in rivers, lakes and lagoons also evaporates and rises, but the large amount of water that forms clouds and rain comes from seas and oceans.
According to this system, clouds could reach deserts and deposit water in them in the same way as they do in other regions and, despite this, the facts show that this does not happen in this way. This is because, despite the fact that the evaporation of seawater is the main cause of cloud formation, there are other factors that also influence this formation and, in addition, also in the places where the cloud is deposited. water in the form of precipitation.
Find out much more in this other AgroCorrn article on How clouds form and their types .
What does it take for it to rain
The first thing to take into account for it to rain is the presence of clouds. As we have seen, the water in the clouds comes, at least for the most part, from the sea itself, which evaporates as a result of the heat and rises to the atmosphere. However, this is where you have to take into account a factor that is decisive for rain: the presence of forests.
Forests influence to attract clouds and rain , and this is a determining factor, since they act by cooling the nearby atmosphere. It must be taken into account that trees absorb CO2 from the air, use the carbon atom for their structure, and return O2 (oxygen) to the atmosphere. In other words, what they do is remove one of the main molecules that causes global warming from the air.and, consequently, they cool the environment and the nearby atmosphere. This means that, when the water from the atmosphere reaches these areas populated with large masses of forests, it cools much more easily and, consequently, clouds are formed that will be the ones that will give rise to the rains. With what we are going to find that the most abundant precipitations are going to be located in areas with high forest densities.
In addition, to this we must add another important factor, which is that the forests themselves release water into the environment, which contributes even more to the formation of clouds and that the rains have a greater presence in these areas.
So why are there few clouds in deserts?
Taking into account what was explained in the previous section, that is, the requirements for clouds and rain to form naturally, we see that in this way, clouds cannot easily form in deserts and, therefore, hardly rain either.
The specific reasons why few clouds form in desert areas is that the absence of forests that release water into the environment is coupled with the fact that CO2 concentrations are higher, which means that they are especially difficult areas for se form clouds.
So, in deserts it never rains?
Despite what it may seem, in the deserts there are some precipitations . However, in the absence of the factors mentioned above, that clouds form and that they discharge precipitation in deserts is a very low probability . However, when this happens, it tends to be especially heavy rains and, in fact, they tend to be especially damaging to the environment.
It must be taken into account that the absence of vegetation also leads to poorer soil. The roots of trees and other plants help make the soil firmer. In episodes in which there is abundant rainfall in deserts , the consequences are usually torrential flows of water that lead to very high surface erosion. In this way, these rains end up dragging everything in their path. In addition, because there is no vegetation that can serve as sustenance for that water, most of it will be lost, which after the most serious flood periods will return to the initial situation of drought typical of desert ecosystems .
In this way, we find that the main way to fight against soil degradation and against droughts is to increase the forest mass. This becomes especially important in areas bordering the desert , since the most common thing, if nothing is done to remedy it, is that a soil poor in flora allows the desert to advance and, with it, also the absence of clouds. and of rains that characterizes it.
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