Planting trees in some parts of the world could cause droughts, according to a Chinese-led study that suggested greening efforts should take regional conditions into account to be effective.
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Through a complex multi-decade study of vegetation and soil moisture patterns combining several databases and models, the researchers found that nearly half of the world had experienced a pattern of “greening-drying.”
This included parts of the United States, Central Asia, Central Africa, inland Europe, southern Australia and South America, where increasing vegetation cover resulted in a drop in soil moisture levels.
Other places, including China, saw a mixture of both patterns.
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“Our study provides a robust and comprehensive assessment of the widespread impacts of global vegetation greening on soil drought,” the team wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Communications Earth & Environment last month.
