Climate models simulate an intensifying Arctic hydrologic cycle in response to climatic warming, however the role of surface-atmosphere interactions from degrading frozen ground is unclear in these projections. Using Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) data in high-latitude Eurasia, we examine long-term variability in surface-atmosphere coupling as represente...

Long term moisture exposure has been shown to affect the mechanical performance of polymeric composite structures. This reduction in mechanical performance must be accommodated for during product design in order to ensure long term structure survival. In order to determine the longterm moisture effects on composite components, representative parts are commonly tested after having been exposed t...

Leaf water potential, leaf relative water content, and relative transpiration of barley were determined daily under greenhouse conditions at 3 growth stages: tillering to boot, boot to heading, and heading to maturity. The leaf moisture characteristic curve (relative water content versus leaf water potential) was the same for leaves of the same age growing in the same environment for the first ...

Upon an increase of moisture, unsaturated soil may collapse or swell, depending on the loading state and history. This important characteristic must be realistically reproduced by a constitutive model aimed for practical applications. In addition to collapse/swelling, other essential features, such as deformation and failure following arbitrary shearing paths, must also be realistically reprodu...

BACKGROUND Respiratory health effects of damp housing are well recognised, but less is known about the effect of dampness and water damage in schools. The HITEA study previously reported a higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms in pupils from moisture damaged schools, but the role of specific microbial exposures remained unclear. OBJECTIVES To study associations between school dampness, le...

For the eventual purpose of developing a generalized method for predicting precipitation from assumed accurate prognoses of the required meteorological element,s, a preliminary investigation is made of the contemporary relntionship between precipitation and the fields of moisture and wind in the atmosphere. Procedures are developed for calculating the rate of precipitation by computing the dive...

Water evaporating from the ocean sustains precipitation on land. This ocean-to-land moisture transport leaves an imprint on sea surface salinity (SSS). Thus, the question arises of whether variations in SSS can provide insight into terrestrial precipitation. This study provides evidence that springtime SSS in the subtropical North Atlantic ocean can be used as a predictor of terrestrial precipi...

As changes in climate become more apparent, ecologists face the challenge of predicting species responses to the new conditions. Most forecasts are based on climate envelopes (CE), correlative approaches that project future distributions on the basis of the current climate often assuming some dispersal lag. One major caveat with this approach is that it ignores the complexity of factors other t...

Experiments with coupled atmosphere/biosphere models indicate that land degradation leads to a reduction in rainfall, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and runoff, and an increase in surface temperature and near surface winds. This talk discusses studies that have investigated the feedback of degradation in forest and other ecosystems on regional climate in the Sahel, the central U.S., South Am...