New research published on Tuesday reveals that deforestation not only leads to temperature increases in local areas, but also has a broader impact on monsoon rains. In addition to releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, deforestation alters the amount of reflected light from the earth's surface and the moisture in the atmosphere from plant transpiration. Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore utilized a model to simulate atmosphere circulation, photosynthesis, transpiration, ocean surface warming, and ice melt. The authors aimed to understand the effects of large-scale deforestation on monsoon rainfall by conducting three experiments removing all trees in tropical, temperate, and high-latitude regions. Deforestation in temperate and high latitudes has caused changes in atmospheric circulation, leading to a southward shift in monsoon rains. This has resulted in a significant decrease in precipitation in northern hemisphere monsoon regions such as East Asia, North America, North Africa, and South Asia, while there have been moderate increases in rainfall in southern hemisphere monsoon regions like South Africa, South America, and Australia. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), remote deforestation in mid- and high-latitudes can have a greater impact on tropical rainfall than local tropical deforestation. The South Asian monsoon region, specifically India, would experience the most significant decline in precipitation, with an 18 percent decrease. The authors of the study emphasized the importance of considering remote impacts on rainfall when evaluating the climate benefits of planting trees in deforested areas. The research pointed out that the amount of land allocated for farming and grazing has grown on a worldwide scale, rising from 620 million hectares in the 1700s (approximately 7 percent of the Earth's land area) to 4,690 million hectares in 2000, which now accounts for about one-third of the planet's total land area.