Drought is a major constraint affecting rice production, especially in rainfed areas across Asia, Africa and South America. Development of drought resistant varieties will considerably improve rainfed rice production. Rice breeding programs focusing on drought resistance by direct selection for yield under stress have made little progress to date. Incorporation of secondary traits contributing ...

Perchlorate (Cl4-) reservoirs that accumulated in semiarid unsaturated zones, similar to chloride (Cl-), can contaminate underlying aquifers if they are mobilized. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Cl)4- mobilization related to land-use change from natural to agricultural ecosystems in the southern High Plains (SHP, USA), where large ClO4- concentrations (< or =60 microg/L) are found in...

Biophysical crop simulation models are normally forced with precipitation data recorded with either gauges or ground-based radar. However, ground-based recording networks are not available at spatial and temporal scales needed to drive the models at many critical places on earth. An alternative would be to employ satellite-based observations of either precipitation or soil moisture. Satellite o...