Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a phenomenon based on urease activity of halotolerant and alkaliphilic microorganisms that can be used for the soil bioclogging and biocementation in geotechnical engineering. However, enrichment cultures produced from indigenous soil bacteria cannot be used for large-scale MICP because their urease activity decreased with the rate a...

To achieve a better understanding of Holocene climate change in the monsoon regions of China, we investigated the molecular distributions and carbon and hydrogen isotope compositions (δ13C and δD values) of long-chain n-alkanes in a peat core from the Shiwangutian (SWGT) peatland, south China over the last 9 ka. By comparisons with other climate records, we found that the δ13C values of the lon...

Previous work suggests that changes in seasonality could lead to a 70% reduction in the extent of the Amazon rainforest. The primary cause of the dieback of the rainforest is a lengthening of the dry season due to a weakening of the large-scale tropical circulation. Here we examine these changes in the seasonal cycle. Under present day conditions the Amazon climate is characterized by a zonal s...

Increases in the severity and frequency of drought in a warming climate may negatively impact agricultural production and food security. Unlike previous studies that have estimated agricultural impacts of climate condition using single-crop yield distributions, we develop a multivariate probabilistic model that uses projected climatic conditions (e.g., precipitation amount or soil moisture) thr...

Climate change is intensifying the hydrologic cycle and is expected to increase the frequency of extreme wet and dry years. Beyond precipitation amount, extreme wet and dry years may differ in other ways, such as the number of precipitation events, event size, and the time between events. We assessed 1614 long-term (100 year) precipitation records from around the world to identify key attribute...

Global climate change is predicted to bring longer dry seasons and changing rainfall patterns to equatorial Africa, causing range reductions for species such as elephants, whose diets are constrained by water availability. Elephants are facultative grazers whose diets are seasonal, with woody proportion of diet increasing in the dry season. In this study, we sought to identify the factors that ...

This study performs a systematic analysis of the recent and future changes dry spells (DS) in Croatia. DS are defined as consecutive sequences days with daily precipitation less than 5 mm precipitation-per-day threshold (DS5). Daily data come from dense national rain gauge network (covering seven regions) span period 1961–2015. The spatial temporal observed mean (MDS5) maximum (MxDS5) seasonal ...