The impacts of severe droughts on human activities, terrestrial ecosystems, and hydrologic systems are wide ranging and easily discernible. Because these impacts are felt at different times by water users, various forms of drought are recognized (e.g. agricultural, hydrological). The purpose of this study is to examine spatial patterns of drought in the contiguous United States on a seasonal ba...

Drought is a complex natural hazard which can have negative effects on agriculture, economy, and human life. In this paper, the primary goal is to explore the application of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity satellite data for the quantitative investigation of the recent drought dynamic over the arid land of northwestern China, a region with scarce hydrological and met...

Drought is a complex hazard, and it has an impact on agricultural, ecological, and socio-economic systems. The vegetation condition index (VCI), which is derived from remote-sensing data, has been widely used for drought monitoring. However, VCI based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) does not perform well in certain circumstances. In this study, we examined the utility of th...

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is relatively vulnerable to abiotic stress conditions such as drought, but the tolerance mechanisms for such stresses in potato are largely unknown. To identify stress-related factors in potato, we previously carried out a genetic screen of potato plants exposed to abiotic environmental stress conditions using reverse northern-blot analysis. A cDNA encoding a putative...

The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics of drought such as intensity, cumulative curves and trends, based on SPEI (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index) at 8 stations in Korea from 1981 to 2010. The traditional SPEI is based on Thornthwaite equation for estimating evapotranspiration; SPEI_th. However, a standard of agricultural water management in Korea suggests F...

Improved drought tolerance is always a highly desired trait for agricultural plants. Significantly increased drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana (Columbia-0) has been achieved in our work through the suppression of ESKMO1 (ESK1) gene expression with small-interfering RNA (siRNA) and overexpression of CBF genes with constitutive gene expression. ESK1 has been identified as a gene linked to...

Drought is one of the major constraints limiting agricultural production worldwide and is expected to increase in the future. Limited water availability causes significant effects to plant growth and physiology. Plants have evolved different traits to mitigate the stress imposed by drought. The presence of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) could play an important role in improving pla...

Climate exerts a profound influence on the lives of rural populations, particularly the rural poor, who depend on agriculture for livelihood and sustenance, who are unprotected against climate-related diseases, who lack secure access to water and food, and who are vulnerable to hydrometeorological hazard. Climate shocks such as drought and flooding lead not only to loss of life, but also long-t...