The importance of proper hydrology in the forest cover-water yield debate: commentary on Ellison et al. (2012) Global Change Biology, 18, 806-820

摘要

In the review article of Ellison et al. (2012) in Global Change Biology, the authors highlight the important debate on whether forests are consumers or suppliers of water. They advocate the idea that we should shift from the local emand side view to the larger scale upply sideview. They do so because they argue, based on the review of several recent papers in global hydrology, that forest cover is of major importance for the occurrence of terrestrial precipitation P and that its removal will lead to severe reductions in P. While we in principal agree with these statements, the numbers on moisture recycling presented in their paper are for a certain part based on a misconception of the hydrological cycle creating the impression that forests play a more important role in the hydrological cycle than they actually do