Droughts are mainly caused by rainfall deficiencies and high evapotranspiration rates. This article introduces a Factual Drought Index (FDI) as composite index, based on precipitation potential (PET). Its innovation lies in the fact that it does not consider total PET, but only amount of PET exceeds or falls behind corresponding average for certain time period. So far, PET-based indices take in...

In order to stress test loan portfolios for the impacts of climate change, historical events need be analyzed create templates future events. Using 2012 Midwestern US drought as an example, this work creates a stress-testing template droughts. The analysis connects weather and crop yield data on local macroeconomic conditions by comparing drought-impacted agricultural counties with nearby urban...

Abstract Drought‐affected regions often contain high densities of small reservoirs, usually informally built, as drought‐coping mechanism. These structures influence socio‐hydrological dynamics and have the potential to alter hydrological processes relevant drought emergence development. This study aimed analyze a concentration reservoirs on intensification evolution events. We present an innov...

Wetlands represent sources or sinks of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). The acidic fen Schlöppnerbrunnen emits denitrification derived N2O and is also capable of N2O consumption. Global warming is predicted to cause more extreme weather events in future years, including prolonged drought periods as well as heavy rainfall events, which may result in flooding. Thus, the effects of prolonge...

In Amazonia there remains the largest contiguous tropical forest of the planet. The vegetation, including its deep root system, is efficient in recycling water vapor, which is an important mechanism for the forests maintenance and helps to maintain evergreen canopies during dry seasons (Nepstad et al. 1994; Cox et al. 2008), demonstrating the adaptation of Amazon forest species to seasonal drou...

Six water emergencies have occurred since 1981 for the NewYork City (NYC) region despite the following: 1) its perhumid climate, 2) substantial conservation of water since 1979, and 3) meteorological data showing little severe or extreme drought since 1970. This study reconstructs 472 years of moisture availability for the NYC watershed to place these emergencies in long-term hydroclimatic cont...

Zea mays is an important crop that is sensitive to drought stress, but survival rates and growth status remain strong in some drought-tolerant lines under stress conditions. Under drought conditions, many biological processes, such as photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism and energy metabolism, are suppressed, while little is known about how the transcripts of genes respond to drought stress ...

The magnitude and frequency of climatic extremes, such as drought, are predicted to increase under future climate change conditions. However, little is known about how other factors such as CO2 concentration will modify plant community responses to these extreme climatic events, even though such modifications are highly likely. We asked whether the response of grasslands to repeat extreme droug...

We compared high-resolution reconstructions of peatland water-table depth at two raised bogs in the western Great Lakes region separated by ∼1000 km. The sites included Minden Bog in southeastern Michigan and Hole-in-the-Bog in north-central Minnesota. Our objectives were to 1) determine whether large, decadal to multidecadal droughts of the past 2000 yrs were spatially and temporally coherent ...

Plants may exhibit some degree of acclimation after experiencing drought, but physiological adjustments to consecutive cycles of drought and re-watering (recovery) have scarcely been studied. The Mediterranean evergreen holm oak (Q. ilex) and the semi-deciduous rockrose (C. albidus) showed some degree of acclimation after the first of three drought cycles (S1, S2, and S3). For instance, during ...