Drought is a normal, recurring feature of climate. The characteristics of this hazard, along with its far-reaching impacts, make its effects on society, economy, and environment difficult to identify and quantify. A national drought watch system has been recommended as a necessary component of drought assessment and management. The National Drought Mitigation Center, in collaboration with other...

[Drought indicators are proliferating, but with little consideration of which are most meaningful for describing drought impacts. A number of recent reviews compare different drought indicators, but none assess which indicators are actually used in the many operational drought monitoring and early warning efforts, why they were selected, or whether they have been ‘ground-truthed’, i.e., compare...

Soil surface texture is an important environmental factor that influences crop productivity because of its direct effect on soil water and complex interactions with other environmental factors. Using 30-year data, an agricultural system model (DSSAT-CERES-Wheat) was calibrated and validated. After validation, the modelled yield and water use (WU) of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) from two ...

The 2011 East Africa drought caused dire situations across several countries and led to a widespread and costly famine in the region. Numerous dynamic and statistical drought prediction models have been used for providing drought information and/or early warning. The concept of Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) has been successfully applied to univariate drought indicators (e.g., the Standar...

Drought is the dominant process of crop loss nationally and within Nebraska. Nearly twothirds of the 18.6 million harvested acres are covered by crop insurance (USDA/RMA, 2003; USDA/NASS, 2003). For the most part, Nebraska’s crop losses range from $50 to 75 million in non-drought years, but the losses approach nearly $200 million in drought years, such as 2000. The past growing season (2002) cr...

Drought stress occurring during the reproductive growth stage leads to considerable reductions in crop production and has become an important limiting factor for food security globally. In order to explore the possible role of drought priming (pre-exposure of the plants to mild drought stress) on the alleviation of a severe drought stress event later in development, wheat plants were subjected ...

Drought control and resistance affect national food security. With this in mind, we studied five main grain-producing regions of China: Sanjiang Plain, Songnen Plain, Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, the middle Yangtze River and Jianghuai region and Sichuan Basin. Using GIS technology, we evaluated the comprehensive agricultural drought situation based on major crops, the basic drought resistance by integ...

Drought is one of the main constraints determining forest species growth, survival and productivity, and therefore one of the main limitations for reforestation or afforestation. The aim of this study is to characterize the drought response at the physiological and molecular level of different Pinus halepensis (common name Aleppo pine) seed sources, previously characterized in field trials as d...

Climate change leading to increased periods of low water availability as well as increasing demands for food in the coming years makes breeding for drought tolerant crops a high priority. Plants have developed diverse strategies and mechanisms to survive drought stress. However, most of these represent drought escape or avoidance strategies like early flowering or low stomatal conductance that ...