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Global change

The water cycle freshens up

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.

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Figure 1: Plants, CO2 and the global water cycle.

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Matthews, D. The water cycle freshens up. Nature 439, 793–794 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/439793a

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