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[Michaelangelica]

This seems to be a 'pump theory' based on the physics of moving air pressure rather than nucleii
It seems to imply that coastal forests are most important in Australia.
These are the ones we mainly chop down as we like to live near the sea.
Revolutionary new theory overturns modern meteorology with claim that forests move rain

Revolutionary new theory overturns modern meteorology with claim that forests move rain
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
April 01, 2009

Largely ignored by scientific community, new theory could change how future generations view forests


Two Russian scientists, Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva of the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics, have published a revolutionary theory that turns modern meteorology on its head, positing that forests—and their capacity for condensation—are actually the main driver of winds rather than temperature. While this model has widespread implications for numerous sciences, none of them are larger than the importance of conserving forests, which are shown to be crucial to 'pumping' precipitation from one place to another. The theory explains, among other mysteries, why deforestation around coastal regions tends to lead to drying in the interior.
. . .
“Forests maintain high evaporation which gets the cycle going,” Sheil told Mongabay.com, ”this can explain how deep wet continental interiors gain high rainfall”.

To explain the 'pump' theory in detail, Mongabay.com turned to Makarieva and Gorshkov:

“In any pump (e.g., water pump that pumps water into the swimming pool or your breathing pump [lungs] that pumps air into your body) a drop of fluid pressure is created, so that the fluid streams towards the area with lowered pressure.
In the case of biotic pump of atmospheric moisture this drop of air pressure is created by water vapor condensation.
That is, pressure of air around us is proportional to the number of gas molecules in a given volume.
Condensation of water vapor leads to the disappearance of vapor molecules and results in air pressure drop.”
The drop in air pressure is particularly important since it is one of the clear cut observations that “has been routinely overlooked” by conventional meteorologists, according to Murdiyarso and Sheil's paper.
. . .
“An actively evaporating natural rainforest will work as a pump continuously supporting lower air pressure above its canopy and thus drawing moist air from the [the ocean]” says Makarieva and Gorshkov. If the rainforest is cutoff or destroyed, water will simply stop being pumped from the ocean and will cease inland, leading to desertification.
. . .
And then comes the statement that has meteorologists rolling in their graves: “this indicates that water vapor condensation is not only a previously unaccounted, but the major, compared to temperature gradients, driver of atmospheric circulation on Earth.”
. . .
For a specific example Makarieva and Gorshkov point to prehistoric Australia. They believe the pump “explains the enigmatic conversion of Australian forests to deserts that roughly coincides in timing with the appearance of the first people.”
According to Makarieva and Gorshkov, when these early peoples burned small bands of forests along the coast where they first inhabited, “the internal inland forests were cut off from the ocean (the tube of the pump cut off) and underwent rapid desertification.”

Simply put a loss of coastal forests—which had been driving rain from the ocean into the interior—caused Australia's current dry climate. If Australia hadn't lost those coastal forests, its environment may be entirely different today—and would not be suffering from extreme and persistent droughts.
. . .
the implications for global warming are many, including re-evaluation of past ecosystem responses to changes in climate. However on the practical end, the new theory grants a new role for the importance of forests. While they have long been recognized as 'carbon sinks' they would now need to be recognized as the 'bringers of rain'—vital for maintaining a stable and productive climate for every species on earth.
. . .
Sheil, who is helping to bring the theory to light says, “I am convinced [the pump theory] deserves very careful scrutiny and not the general dismissal that has happened thus far.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g9...01-0885a-1.jpg

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i just read this but can't find the article now !!

“Negative pressure” helps synthetic trees to drag water to new heights
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Justin Mullins

Available online 13 September 2008.

Chemists have for the first time succeeded in reproducing the mechanism that trees use to draw water from their roots to their leaves