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Nature 439, 793-794 (16 February 2006) | doi:10.1038/439793a; Published online 15 February 2006

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Global change: The water cycle freshens up

Damon Matthews1

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Rivers are delivering increasing amounts of fresh water to the ocean. The cause seems to be the influence that higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are having on water use by plants.

Measurements of stream flow around the world have documented an increase in the amount of water that runs off the continents and returns to the ocean1. This trend has been occurring since the beginning of the century, yet changes in precipitation over land do not sufficiently account for this increase.

  1. Damon Matthews is in the Department of Geography, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
    Email: dmatthew@ucalgary.ca

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