We assess the performance of 30 CMIP5 and two CMIP3 models using metrics based on an all-Australia average rainfall and NINO3.4 sea surface temperatures (SSTs). The assessment provides an insight into the relative performance of the models at simulating long-term average monthly mean values, interannual variability and the seasonal cycles. It also includes a measure of the ability to capture ob...

Restoration efforts in Florida's Everglades focus on preserving and restoring this unique wetland's natural landscape. Because most of the Everglades is a freshwater peatland, it requires surplus rainfall to remain a peatland. Restoration plans generally assume a stable climate, yet projections of altered climate over a 50-year time horizon suggest that this assumption may be inappropriate. Usi...

Climate changes are predicted to increase extreme rainfall events in semiarid and arid region in Northern Hemisphere. Nutrient cycles will be affected by the precipitation changes but so far only very little is known how soil N transformations may respond. Here we investigated gross soil N transformation rates and their response to simulated rainfall events across Northeast China Transect (NECT...

Understanding crop resilience to environmental stress is critical in predicting the consequences of global climate change for agricultural systems worldwide, but to date studies addressing crop resiliency have focused primarily on plant physiological and molecular responses. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form mutualisms with many crop species, and these relationships are key in mitigating ...

Problem statement: The rainfall based design flood estimation techniques are commonly adopted in hydrological design and require a number of inputs including information on soil loss characteristics. Approach: A conceptual loss model known as the ‘Initial Loss-Continuing Loss (ILCL) model’ is widely used in Australia. Results: The Initial Loss (IL) occurs at the beginning of the rainfall event,...

After more than 350 mm of rainfall fell in a few hours on 22 November 2011, thousands of landslides and floods were induced in two main zones of Northeastern Sicily. The total rainfall has been reconstructed integrating available rain gauge data with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite data from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration); the landslide distribution in...

This paper begins with an overview of the African rainfall regime, noting in particular the contrast among various regions Ž . of the continent, followed by a description of the nature of climatic i.e., rainfall variability over Africa on time scales of decades and centuries. The decadal scale is examined using modern data covering the twentieth century. The century scale is examined using hist...

Springtime rainfall, accounting for 25-40% of the annual rainfall in southern China, exerts great agricultural and socioeconomic impacts on the region. In the recent decades, southern China has experienced a significant declining trend of precipitation in boreal spring. Meanwhile, precipitation has increased over the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea (SCS-PhS). This paper presents observat...

Our objective was to understand and describe local spatial and temporal variability in precipitation around Kibale National Park, a tropical forest area of high conservation value. Continental or regional-scale trends are often relied upon to make policy and management decisions, but these analyses are often at too coarse a resolution to capture important variability at a finer scale where mana...

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to describe the regional malaria incidence in relation to the geographic and climatic conditions and describe the effect of altitude on the expansion of malaria over the last decade in Papua New Guinea. METHODS Malaria incidence was estimated in five provinces from 1996 to 2008 using national health surveillance data. Time trend of malaria incidence was com...