The aim of this paper is to project extreme precipitation events in an arid and a semiarid station. In order to project climate change based on general circulation models (GCMs), we have applied LARS-WG[1] downscaling tool. This stochastic weather generator down-scaled the climate of two synoptic stations using HADCM3 model and A2 emission scenario for 2040. We extracted extreme precipitation e...

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...

Accurate estimation of green aboveground biomass in arid and semiarid grassland is essential for a variety of studies, such as sustainable grassland management, fire risk assessment, climate change, and environmental degradation. A great need exists for the establishment of robust method for estimating green aboveground biomass in arid and semiarid grassland due to the influences of soil backgr...

East Asia is a major dust source in the world. Mineral dusts in the atmosphere and their interactions with clouds and precipitation have great impacts on regional climate in Asia, where there are large arid and semiarid regions. In this review paper, we summarize the typical transport paths of East Asian dust, which affect regional and global climates, and discuss numerous effects of dust aeros...

1. Definitions 1.1. Types of Aridity 1.2. Levels of Aridity 2. Paleoperspective 3. People and Land Use in Arid Lands 3.1. Foragers/Hunter–gatherers 3.2. Agriculturists 3.3. Pastoralists 4. Geomorphology of Arid and Semiarid Lands 5. Biological Diversity in Arid Lands 5.1. Arid and Semiarid Lands Plants and their Uses 5.2. The Future of the Conservation of Wild Plants in Arid Regions 6. Climatic...

The amount and spatial distribution of deep drainage (downward movement of water across the bottom of the root zone) and groundwater recharge affect the quantity and quality of increasingly limited groundwater in arid and semiarid regions. We synthesize research from the fields of ecology and hydrology to address the issue of deep drainage in arid and semiarid regions. We start with a recently ...

Climate change and water availability in the Middle East are important in understanding human adaptive capacities in the face of long-term environmental changes. The key role of water availability for sedentary and nomad populations in these arid to semiarid landscapes is understood, but the millennium-scale influence of hydrologic instability on vegetation dynamics, human occupation, and histo...

the aim of this paper is to project extreme precipitation events in an arid and a semiarid station. in order to project climate change based on general circulation models (gcms), we have applied lars-wg[1] downscaling tool. this stochastic weather generator down-scaled the climate of two synoptic stations using hadcm3 model and a2 emission scenario for 2040. we extracted extreme precipitation e...

In semiarid or arid conditions, the change of root-zone soil moisture can be almost instantaneously reflected by vegetation through biophysical process. This study investigated feasibility of mapping root-zone soil moisture using MODIS-derived NDVI via statistic approach at three sites (New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas) selected from the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN). These three sites rep...

This paper identifies rare climate challenges in the long-term history of seven areas, three in the subpolar North Atlantic Islands and four in the arid-to-semiarid deserts of the US Southwest. For each case, the vulnerability to food shortage before the climate challenge is quantified based on eight variables encompassing both environmental and social domains. These data are used to evaluate t...