In a greenhouse study we quantified the gradual change of gas exchange, water relations and root reserves of aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) seedlings growing over a 3-month period of severe water stress. The aim of the study was to quantify the complex interrelationship between growth, water and gas exchange, and root carbon (C) dynamics. Various growth, gas exchange and water relations var...

Global change is challenging plant and animal populations with novel environmental conditions, including increased atmospheric CO(2) concentrations, warmer temperatures, and altered precipitation regimes. In some cases, contemporary or "rapid" evolution can ameliorate the effects of global change. However, the direction and magnitude of evolutionary responses may be contingent upon interactions...

The study aims to assess climate change impacts on streamflow drought in a catchment upstream of Tseng-Wen Reservoir which is the main water supplier in southern Taiwan. A singular-value-decomposition statistical downscaling method and a stochastic weather generator were applied to six different general circulation models for rainfall and temperature downscaling. Two emission climate change sce...

Water use efficiency (WUE) measures the trade-off between carbon gain and water loss of terrestrial ecosystems, and better understanding its dynamics and controlling factors is essential for predicting ecosystem responses to climate change. We assessed the magnitude, spatial patterns, and trends of WUE of China's terrestrial ecosystems and its responses to drought using a process-based ecosyste...

The history of blood pressure (BP) waveform analysis is almost as undulatory as the waveform itself. The development of the sphygmograph in the mid-19th century led to a relatively brief, albeit intense, interest in the interpretation of the BP waveform. This was perhaps more an art than a science, and interest in the sphygmograph and the waveform declined after the introduction of the cuff-bas...

Abstract Droughts, or severe reductions of water flow, are expected to become more frequent and intense in rivers many regions under the ongoing climate change scenario. It is therefore important understand stream ecosystem functioning drought conditions. We performed a meta-analysis studies addressing effects on litter decomposition streams (50 contributing 261 effect sizes) quantify overall t...

Forests typically experience a mix of anthropogenic, natural and climate-induced stressors of different intensities, creating a mosaic of stressor combinations across the landscape. When multiple stressors co-occur, their combined impact on plant growth is often greater than expected based on single-factor studies (i.e., synergistic), potentially causing catastrophic dysfunction of physiologica...

Future climates are forecast to include greater precipitation variability and more frequent heat waves, but the degree to which the timing of climate variability impacts ecosystems is uncertain. In a temperate, humid grassland, we examined the seasonal impacts of climate variability on 27 y of grass productivity. Drought and high-intensity precipitation reduced grass productivity only during a ...

The "hydraulic city" of Angkor, the capitol of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia, experienced decades-long drought interspersed with intense monsoons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that, in combination with other factors, contributed to its eventual demise. The climatic evidence comes from a seven-and-a-half century robust hydroclimate reconstruction from tropical southern Vietnamese tree...