By Steven Grattan BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Droughts have withered crops in Peru, fires have scorched the Amazon and hydroelectric dams in Ecuador have struggled to keep the lights on as rivers dry up. Scientists say the cause may lie high above the rainforest, where invisible \u201cflying rivers\u201d carry rain from the Atlantic Ocean across South America. New analysis warns that relentless deforestation is disrupting that water flow and suggests that continuing tree loss will worsen droughts in the southwestern Amazon and could eventually trigger those regions to shift from rainforest to drier savanna \u2014 grassland with far fewer trees. \u201cThese are the forces that actually create and sustain the Amazon rainforest,\u201d said Matt Finer, a senior researcher with Amazon Conservation\u2019s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), which tracks… <\/p>\n
By Steven Grattan BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Droughts have withered crops in Peru, fires have scorched the Amazon and hydroelectric dams in Ecuador have struggled to keep the lights on as rivers dry up. Scientists say the cause may lie high above the rainforest, where invisible \u201cflying rivers\u201d carry rain from the Atlantic Ocean across South America. New analysis warns that relentless deforestation is disrupting that water flow and suggests that continuing tree loss will worsen droughts in the southwestern Amazon and could eventually trigger those regions to shift from rainforest to drier savanna \u2014 grassland with far fewer trees. \u201cThese are the forces that actually create and sustain the Amazon rainforest,\u201d said Matt Finer, a senior researcher with Amazon Conservation\u2019s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), which tracks... <\/p>\n