Many water-related illnesses show an increase during the wet season. This is often due to fecal contamination from runoff, yet, it is unknown whether seasonal changes in water availability may also play a role in increased illness via changes in the type of primary water source used by households. Very little is known about the dynamic aspects of access to water and changes in source type acros...

[1] The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) has been widely used to study aridity changes in modern and past climates. Efforts to address its major problems have led to new variants of the PDSI, such as the self‐calibrating PDSI (sc_PDSI) and PDSI using improved formulations for potential evapotranspiration (PE), such as the Penman‐Monteith equation (PE_pm) instead of the Thornthwaite equation...

The effects of exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) on the acclimation of Picea asperata to water deficit were investigated in two populations originating from wet and dry climate regions of China. Exogenous ABA was sprayed onto the leaves, and changes in plant growth and structure, gas exchange, water use efficiency (WUE), endogenous ABA content, and antioxidant enzyme levels were monitored. The resu...

Growth ring analysis on silicified coniferous woods from the Missão Velha Formation (Araripe Basin - Brazil) has yielded important information about periodicity of wood production during the Early Cretaceous in the equatorial belt. Despite warm temperatures, dendrological data indicate that the climate was characterized by cyclical alternation of dry and rainy periods influenced by cyclical pre...

Weather and climate have a strong influence on tourism and the recreation sector, which is a very important industry. Since tourism is becoming one of the main industries all over the world, it plays an important role in promoting national and local economic development. This paper attempts to show the role of climate in tourism seasonality and tries to study the impacts of climate resources on...

Substantial rhythms in clean wool, wax and suint production have been observed for dry, spring-shorn Merino ewes maintained od a uniform plane of nutrition in exposed pens. Changes can be related directly to mean daily temperatures. Reversed rhythms were recorded for dry, spring-shorn, grazing sheep where both nutrition and climate were changing. Thus climate corrections would enhance the nutri...

The energy performance of radiant slab cooling relative to conventional air systems to be clarified for climates from cold and dry to very hot and humid. EnergyPlus simulations were used to compare the energy performance of 1) radiant slab cooling combined with a dedicated outdoor air system and 2) a variable air volume system. Simulation results show that the radiant slab system provided 10% t...

The Dry Valleys are subdivided into three microclimate zones on the basis of summertime measurements of atmospheric temperature, soil moisture, relative humidity and wind-speed/ direction. Subtle variations in these climate parameters result in considerable differences in process geomorphology and in the development of unique landforms within each zone. The mapped zones include a coastal thaw z...