Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Yakun Zhang, Ankur R. Desai, Jingfeng Xiao, Alfred E. Hartemink
Summary: Understanding the control mechanisms of topsoil depth on long-term ecosystem productivity is crucial for sustaining productivity and increasing resilience in different ecosystems under a changing climate. The relationship between topsoil depth and gross primary productivity (GPP) is primarily influenced by water availability, especially in arid regions. Increasing topsoil depth can enhance ecosystem productivity, particularly in cropland and shrubland.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Jesse Norris, Alex Hall, Chad W. Thackeray, Di Chen, Gavin D. Madakumbura
Summary: This study demonstrates the correlation between the strength of hydrologic sensitivity (HS) under El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and HS in the context of climate change. The findings suggest that central Pacific ENSO events are a better predictor of HS under future warming. GCMs with greater HS exhibit a weakening of the atmospheric circulation and expansion under ENSO.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
O. Sungmin, Seon Ki Park
Summary: This study investigates the impact of flash droughts on ecosystems in Europe using observational data. It finds that rapid onset of drought negatively affects vegetation and carbon uptake, particularly in arid regions. However, vegetation in humid regions is less severely affected due to quicker soil moisture recovery. The study also shows that soil moisture status before drought onset significantly influences the timing and degree of vegetation stress.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Samuel Saxe, William Farmer, Jessica Driscoll, Terri S. Hogue
Summary: Uncertainty in hydrologic component estimates is higher in the western CONUS and lower in the eastern CONUS. Interannual trends from 1982 to 2010 show common disagreements in R, SWE, and SM estimates. Poor overall correlation in the western CONUS for ET and SM estimates when correlated against remote sensing products.
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yanqing Zhou, Yaoming Li, Wei Li, Feng Li, Qinchuan Xin
Summary: Understanding the impacts of climate change and human activities on ecosystems is crucial. This study investigated the effects of climate variation and human activities on major indicators of ecosystem functions and conditions in Xinjiang, a typical arid and semi-arid region in China. The results show that human activities have a significant influence on ecosystem indicators in arid and semi-arid zones.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Conrad Wasko, Yawen Shao, Elisabeth Vogel, Louise Wilson, Q. J. Wang, Andrew Frost, Chantal Donnelly
Summary: Changes in the hydrologic cycle have significant impacts on agricultural productivity, water resources availability, and environmental management in Australia. While northern parts of Australia have experienced increasing rainfall and water availability, the southwest and southeast coast have seen declines in rainfall, affecting runoff and soil moisture. Standardised runoff index indicates increasing streamflow droughts across large parts of Australia.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jie Liu, Changkun Wang, Zhiying Guo, Aiai Xu, Kai Pan, Xianzhang Pan
Summary: Climate factors have a distinct impact on soil microbial community in arid and semiarid desert areas, but after intensive agriculture, the effects of climate on soil microbial diversity are weakened. The relationships between microbial richness and climate factors differ in different land use types, with fewer significant correlations observed in croplands.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Soil Science
Eunice A. Mutuku, Bernard Vanlauwe, Dries Roobroeck, Pascal Boeckx, Wim M. Cornelis
Summary: The study found that visual methods are reliable for assessing the structural quality of tropical soils in Africa and can distinguish changes in soil structural quality caused by different land uses. By comparing the performance of different visual methods and correlating them with laboratory-measured soil properties, the study demonstrates an effective way to evaluate soil structural quality.
SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Horticulture
Vijay Singh Meena, Jagan Singh Gora, Akath Singh, Chet Ram, Nirmal Kumar Meena, Pratibha, Youssef Rouphael, Boris Basile, Pradeep Kumar
Summary: There is a high demand for nutrient-dense fruits, including underutilized fruit crops. These crops have advantages in terms of easy cultivation, drought resistance, richness in important phytochemicals, and medicinal value. Therefore, it is important to protect and study the nutritional characteristics of these crops in order to expand the variety of future food and enhance their functional and nutritional values.
Article
Agronomy
Maryem Ismaili, Samira Krimissa, Mustapha Namous, Abdelaziz Htitiou, Kamal Abdelrahman, Mohammed S. Fnais, Rachid Lhissou, Hasna Eloudi, Elhousna Faouzi, Tarik Benabdelouahab
Summary: This study developed soil-suitability maps using machine learning algorithms and physico-chemical and phenological parameters, showing that phenological parameters had the greatest influence on soil-suitability prediction. The Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve validation demonstrated high accuracy for all models, with an AUC above 0.82, and the XgbTree model achieved the best performance with an AUC of 0.97. The findings highlight the excellent ability of machine learning models to predict soil-suitability.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Seyed Roohollah Mousavi, Fereydoon Sarmadian, Marcos Esteban Angelini, Patrick Bogaert, Mahmoud Omid
Summary: This study investigates the use of a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to assess the effects of soil forming factors on key soil properties in an arid and semi-arid region of Iran. The results show that several environmental factors are impacting these soil properties. Although the SEM approach is useful for identifying cause-effect relationships, it is not efficient for digital soil mapping of these soil properties.
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Samuel Smith, Paul W. Staten, Jian Lu
Summary: Models show disagreement on the intensification of the hydrologic cycle under climate change, and the uncertainty is partly inherited due to the uncertain response of the general circulation. The study links circulation changes to changes in the higher moments of the hydrologic cycle through a novel dynamical framework, and identifies overturning as the main dynamic contributor to the response in tropical and subtropical regions, while advective contributions dominate in extratropical regions. The study also demonstrates the robustness of the Clausius-Clapeyron scaling for the local hydrologic cycle and highlights the impact of changing subtropical dynamics on future projections.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
David. W. Pierce, Daniel. R. Cayan, Daniel. R. Feldman, Mark. D. Risser
Summary: A new set of CMIP6 data downscaled using the LOCA statistical method has been produced, which covers central Mexico through southern Canada at a resolution of 6 km. The improvements in daily precipitation extremes compared to CMIP5 downscaled data have important societal and economic implications. These improvements are achieved by using a better precipitation training dataset and implementing an ensemble bias correction.
JOURNAL OF HYDROMETEOROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Wenshuai Li, Xiao-Ming Liu, Yan Hu, Fang-Zhen Teng, Oliver A. Chadwick
Summary: The controls on potassium (K) isotope fractionation during chemical weathering are evaluated using two regolith profiles developed over -350 kyr on the humid and arid sides of Kohala Mountain, Hawai'i. The findings suggest that potassium enrichment and loss occur in both regolith profiles, with the humid profile showing significant potassium enrichment in shallow horizons and loss in deeper horizons. The presence of K-bearing mineral aerosols in the humid regolith may explain the apparent contradiction between enrichment and loss. Climate, weathering, plant cycling, and the addition of marine and mineral aerosols all contribute to the potassium isotope composition in Hawaiian regoliths.
GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Xinyi Liu, Quan Lai, Shan Yin, Yuhai Bao, Song Qing, Li Mei, Lingxin Bu
Summary: This study examines the relationship between vegetation growth and water supply in four major sandy lands in China using multi-source satellite observations. The results show the negative impact of land desertification and decreased groundwater levels on the ecological environment, emphasizing the need for continuous vegetation restoration and management. The study also highlights the limitations of vegetation index and the influence of precipitation-driven soil moisture on the vegetation-moisture relationship.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2022)
