Aerosolized microorganisms may play an important role in climate change, disease transmission, water and soil contaminants, and geographic migration of microbes. While it is known that bioaerosols are generated when bubbles break on the surface of water containing microbes, it is largely unclear how viable soil-based microbes are transferred to the atmosphere. Here we report a previously unknow...

Acquiring water is a challenge for desert animals, and organisms inhabiting arid regions have evolved morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits to maintain an appropriate water balance. On four occasions, I observed rain-harvesting or observed behaviors suggestive of rain harvesting in a population of speckled rattlesnakes (Crotalus mitchellii) in the Mojave Desert of southwestern Nor...

[1] Tide-induced variations in subsurface air pressure, mainly between 1.0 to 2.0 kPa, are observed in coastal areas in Hong Kong. A two-dimensional model which couples the two-phase air-water flow in unsaturated and saturated zones successfully reproduces the observed air pressure under no rain conditions. The simulation reveals that significant increases in air pressure depend on the tidal ra...

A mean field model is presented that describes droplet growth resulting from condensation and collisions and droplet loss resulting from fallout. The model allows for an effective numerical simulation. The numerical scheme that is conservative in water mass and keeps accurate count of the number of droplets is applied, and the way in which the rain initiation time depends on different parameter...

A survey of Candida albicans indicated that the organism was present at all sites sampled in a rain forest stream and in near-shore coastal waters of Puerto Rico. In the rain forest watershed no relationship existed between densities of fecal coliforms and densities of C. albicans. At two pristine sites in the rain forest watershed both C. albicans and Escherichia coli survived in diffusion cha...

The farmers working in the farmlands are dependent on the rains, river, pond and bore wells. Even if the farm land has a water-pump, most of the time it is being kept stand-still due to non-availability of grid power in the remote areas where the potential of sun light availability is tremendous throughout the year. Increase in agricultural production depends to a large extent on the availabili...

W continental ice sheets melted about 15,000 years ago, rising seas inundated large regions of northern Australia, fl ooding valleys and creating vast, low-lying wetland areas. More recent transitions in some of these regions occurred as gradual siltation and levée formation reduced the movement of salt water to create freshwater swamps that were regularly fi lled by monsoon rains, a process th...

Livestock production is a major consumer of fresh water, and the influence of livestock production on global fresh water resources is increasing because of the growing demand for livestock products. Increasing water use efficiency of livestock production, therefore, can contribute to the overall water use efficiency of agriculture. Previous studies have reported significant variation in livesto...