Unknown (2025) Forests’ misty breath sustains crops in distant lands

Identification

• Journal: Nature
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-10-31
• Authors: Unknown
• DOI: 10.1038/d41586-025-03512-8

Research Groups

• Stockholm University

Short Summary

This research highlights that crops in 155 countries are partly sustained by moisture originating from forests in other nations, with some regions receiving up to 40% of their annual cropland precipitation from these cross-border flows. It underscores the global interconnectedness between forest health and food security, suggesting forest conservation as a climate change adaptation strategy for agriculture.

Objective

• To assess how moisture emitted by forests affects crops around the world, particularly focusing on cross-border dependencies.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, focusing on moisture flows across national borders from forests to agricultural areas.
• Temporal Scale: Annual (referencing annual cropland precipitation).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not explicitly mentioned in the research highlight. The study "mapped how moisture flows."
• Data sources: Not explicitly mentioned in the research highlight. The study analyzed moisture transport from forests to downwind agricultural areas.

Main Results

• Crops in 155 countries are partly sustained by moisture exhaled by forests located in another nation.
• Upwind forests supply up to 40% of some countries’ annual cropland precipitation.
• Brazil is identified as a key exporter of moisture, providing water to croplands in nations such as Argentina and Peru.
• The study highlights the interconnectedness of forest moisture and global food systems, as recipient nations often export these crops worldwide.

Contributions

• Quantifies the significant, often overlooked, global and cross-border dependency of agricultural precipitation on forest-derived moisture.
• Emphasizes the critical role of forest ecosystems in sustaining distant food production systems.
• Proposes forest conservation as an effective strategy for mitigating climate change threats to global crop yields.

Funding

• Not mentioned in the research highlight.

Citation

@article{Unknown2025Forests,
  author = {},
  title = {Forests’ misty breath sustains crops in distant lands},
  journal = {Nature},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1038/d41586-025-03512-8},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03512-8}
}