Recent results suggest that the wild ancestor of the horse, the Przewalski horse, exhibits signs of a hypometabolism. However, there are speculations that domestic animals lost the ability to reduce energy expenditure during food shortage and adverse environmental conditions. Therefore, we investigated physiological and behavioural strategies employed by a robust domesticated horse breed, the S...

Straw retention has been shown to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from agricultural soils. But it remains a big challenge for models to effectively predict CO2 emission fluxes under different straw retention methods. We used maize season data in the Griffith region, Australia, to test whether the denitrification-decomposition (DNDC) model could simulate annual CO2 emission. We also identif...

The incubation period for malaria parasites within the mosquito is exquisitely temperature-sensitive, so that temperature is a major determinant of malaria risk. Epidemiological models are increasingly used to guide allocation of disease control resources and to assess the likely impact of climate change on global malaria burdens. Temperature-based malaria transmission is generally incorporated...

Satellite remote sensing provides a powerful tool for assessing lake water surface temperature (LWST) variations, particularly for large water bodies that reside in remote areas. In this study, the MODIS land surface temperature (LST) product level 3 (MOD11A2) was used to investigate the spatiotemporal variation of LWST for 56 large lakes across the Tibetan Plateau and examine the factors affec...

This study revealed the influence of the oasis effect on summer temperatures based on MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) and meteorological data. The results showed that the oasis effect occurs primarily in the summer. For a single oasis, the maximum oasis cold island intensity based on LST (OCILST) was 3.82 °C and the minimum value was 2.32 °C. In terms of the annual change in OCILST, the me...

The climate change in Shandong Peninsula, China was analyzed in this paper by the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test, Accumulated Difference Curve and Order Cluster Analysis methods, based upon the datas of annual mean, maximum and minimum temperature and annual precipitation, precipitation from June to September over the past 50 years. Results obtained showed a number of observations: 1) The ann...

Annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) turf quality is reduced during periods of high temperature. To predict heat stress injury and develop improved prestress maintenance practices, an understanding of the seasonal variation in annual bluegrass heat tolerance and the influence of soil moisture on heat tolerance is crucial. Annual bluegrass growing in the field on a Drummer silty clay loam (fine silty...

anatomical changes of the exposed roots in cupressus sempervirens l. var horizontalis were used toestimate soil erosion in hassan abad valley, chaloos, iran. a total of 30 exposed roots, for five trees,were used to estimate erosion. cross-sections of 20 μm were papered and the first year of exposure byerosion was identified. we finally estimated the mean annual erosion. the statistical relation...

Understanding climatic influences on the proportion of evergreen versus deciduous broad-leaved tree species in forests is of crucial importance when predicting the impact of climate change on broad-leaved forests. Here, we quantified the geographical distribution of evergreen versus deciduous broad-leaved tree species in subtropical China. The Relative Importance Value index (RIV) was used to e...

The impact of projected global warming on crop yields has been evaluated by indirect methods using simulation models. Direct studies on the effects of observed climate change on crop growth and yield could provide more accurate information for assessing the impact of climate change on crop production. We analyzed weather data at the International Rice Research Institute Farm from 1979 to 2003 t...