NASA has awarded a three-year contract worth $826,639 to the East-West Center to determine the effects of sudden and expansive rubber cultivation on regional water and carbon dynamics in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia.

The research comes as a result of China's increased demand for rubber, which has farmers in the region switching from shifting cultivation to commercial agriculture, which could cause hydrolic changes and affect the 200 million natives of the lowland areas and places susceptible to monsoons in Asia, the East-West Center said Monday in a press release.

Montane is a biogeographic term that refers to highland areas located below the tree line. Montane regions generally have cooler temperatures and often have higher rainfall than the adjacent lowland regions.

The study will include participants from the East-West Center, University of Hawai'i-Manoa, the National University of Laos, Harvard University and the Carnegie Institution to examine hydrolic changes in the region.

Specialists in the fields of remote sensing and cover-land use, ecosystem modeling and hydrology will work together to complete the proposed study.