一份新的研究結果顯示，加州中谷(Central Valley)在過去幾年實施擴大農業灌溉，使得暖化現象不易察覺，然而灌溉的效果是有限的，對於暖化將不會造成明顯的影響。
此項研究由勞倫斯利弗摩爾國家實驗室與加州大學馬西分校共同進行，其主要作者邦菲斯(Celine Bonfils)表示，「在全球主要農業灌溉區進行灌溉，對於日間最高溫的降溫效果，在未來50年內不會較上一世紀來的明顯，也可能無法持續減緩暖化的影響。」
根據對全加州氣溫與灌溉趨勢的觀察，研究者證明灌溉確實導致農業區氣溫降低，但同時也顯示降溫的效果近來正逐漸減緩。此項研究結果登載於本期美國國家科學學院院刊。
研究顯示，加州聖喬昆谷(San Joaquin Valley)的高度灌溉區，自1887年進行灌溉至今其日間溫度與低度灌溉區相較減少了1.8至3.2度。
此研究團隊成員之一洛貝爾(David Lobell)表示，「相較之下，在1980年到2000年間無擴大灌溉的狀況下，灌溉對氣溫並無顯著的影響。」
Expansion of irrigation has in the past masked global warming in California’s Central Valley, but irrigation will not make much of a difference in the future, new research reveals.
"Throughout the major irrigated regions of the world, the cooling influence of irrigation on daytime maximum temperatures will be much smaller in the next 50 years than in the past century, and will likely not continue to curb the effects of greenhouse warming any more," said Celine Bonfils, lead author of the study from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and University of California-Merced.
Based on observations of temperature and irrigation trends throughout the state, the authors demonstrated a clear irrigation induced cooling in agricultural areas, and showed that this effect has recently slowed down, according to their study published in the current edition of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
In highly irrigated regions of California's San Joaquin Valley, daytime temperatures relative to low irrigated areas have cooled by 1.8 degrees to 3.2 degrees Celsius since irrigation began in 1887, the study shows.
"In comparison, there was no clear effect of irrigation on temperatures over the 1980-2000 period when there was no net growth of irrigation," Lobell said.
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