Question: How can mammalian community characteristics be used to estimate regional precipitation? Data: Global distribution data of large mammals and their ecomorphology; global climate data. Research methods: Non-linear regression-tree analysis and linear regression. Conclusions: The methods unravelled the complex relationships between the environment and the characteristics of mammalian commu...

The loess hilly-gully region is a focus region of the "Grain for Green" program in China. Drought is the main problem in the study region. Precipitation and temperature are two indicators that directly characterize climatic drought. A thorough analysis of the precipitation, temperature and drought characteristics of the loess hilly-gully region can clarify the current water and heat conditions ...

Evolutionary ecologists have long sought to understand the conditions under which perennial (iteroparous) versus annual (semelparous) plant life histories are favored. We evaluated the idea that aridity and variation in the length of droughts should favor the evolution of an annual life history, both by decreasing adult survival and by increasing the potential for high seedling survival via red...

Climate gradients shape spatial variation in the richness and composition of plant communities. Given future predicted changes in climate means and variability, and likely regional variation in themagnitudes of these changes, it is important to determine how temporal variation in climate influences temporal variation in plant community structure. Here, we evaluated how species richness, turnove...

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between precipitation at the seasonal and annual scale and water discharge per surface area for seven contiguous firstand second-order tributaries of the Rhode River, a small tidal tributary to Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA. The goal was to quantify the effects of a wide range of precipitation, representative of interannual variations...

The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) has become a popular measure of drought across the globe. In this study, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used in annual period of time to survey on drought. Also, in order to zonation frequency of drought, geographic information system (GIS) software and Kriging method used for extracting dry areas. The zoning maps show most severe drought i...

BACKGROUND Floodplain meadows along rivers are semi-natural habitats and depend on regular land use. When used non-intensively, they offer suitable habitats for many plant species including rare ones. Floodplains are hydrologically dynamic ecosystems with both periods of flooding and of dry conditions. In German floodplains, dry periods may increase due to reduced summer precipitation as projec...