[1] Semiarid rangelands are a significant global sink for methane (CH4), but this sink strength may be altered by climate change. Methane uptake is sensitive to soil moisture showing a hump‐shaped relationship with a distinct optimum soil moisture level. Both CO2 and temperature affect soil moisture, but the direction of CH4 uptake response may depend on if the system is below or above the soil...

Bird species richness is mediated by local, regional, and historical factors, for example, competition, environmental heterogeneity, contemporary, and historical climate. Here, we related bird species richness with phylogenetic relatedness of bird assemblages, plant species richness, topography, contemporary climate, and glacial-interglacial climate change to investigate the relative importance...

[1] Groundwater is an important component of the hydrologic cycle, and its anomaly will result in variations of soil moisture, water, and energy balances between the land surface and atmosphere, which ultimately influence climate. In this study, we implement a groundwater model into the regional climate model RegCM3, which is called RegCM3_GW, and investigate the effects of water table dynamics...

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 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...

[1] Groundwater recharge is likely to be affected by climate change. In semiarid regions where groundwater resources are often critical, annual recharge rates are typically small and most recharge occurs episodically. Such episodic recharge is uncertain and difficult to predict. This paper analyzes the impacts of different climate predictions on diffuse episodic recharge at a low‐relief semiari...

bioretention, its applicability to a hot and semiarid region has rarely been evaluated. Existing manuals are developed primarily by studies from temperate-climate regions and focus on residential–commercial uses (3–5). Therefore, bioretention research that addresses hotclimate areas and large-scale highway conditions is needed. To apply bioretention on highway roadsides, design specifications s...

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...

A plateau scale soil moisture and soil temperature observatory is established on the Tibetan Plateau for quantifying uncertainties in coarse resolution satellite and model products of soil moisture and soil temperature. The Tibetan Plateau observatory of plateau scale soil moisture and soil temperature (Tibet-Obs) consists of three regional scale insitu reference networks, including the Naqu ne...

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...