Tag Archives: drought

2001-02 Drought Helped to Shift Rocky Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak into Epidemic

By Guest PostNovember 5, 2012Environment19th century, alpine research, Arctic, beetles, boulder, british columbia, climate, colorado, continental divide, drought, dynamics, epidemic, episode, evan pugh, forest, front range, lodgepole pine, mountain, native insect, new mexico, North America, northern, pine beetle, ponderosa pine, precipitation, rocky mountains, tania schoennagel, teresa chapman, thomas veblen, university, warmer climate, western slope, wyoming

A new University of Colorado Boulder study shows for the first time that episodes of reduced precipitation in the southern Rocky Mountains, especially during the 2001-02 drought, greatly accelerated development of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

The study, the first ever to chart the evolution of the current pine beetle epidemic in the southern Rocky Mountains, compared patterns of beetle outbreak in the two primary host species, the ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Teresa Chapman. The current mountain pine beetle outbreak in the southern Rockies — which range from southern Wyoming through Colorado and into northern New Mexico –is estimated to have impacted nearly 3,000 square miles of forests, said Chapman, lead study author. (more…)

Barley getting by

By Guest PostNovember 4, 2012Sciencebarley genome, crops, cycle, disease resistance, drought, euphrates, farmers, fertile crescent, food security, function, fungus, fusarium, gary muehlbauer, genes, heat tolerance, idaho, malting quality, mediterranean coast, mesopotamia, minnesota, montana, nile valley, nitrogen use, nomads, north dakota, persian gulf, pests, planet, plant genetics, sequencing, tigris, university, valley, western world, yield

Sequencing the barley genome will sow many benefits

Some 10,000 years ago, people found they didn’t have to live as nomads, hunting and gathering all their food. In the Fertile Crescent, they started planting crops.

The Fertile Crescent extended from the Nile Valley and along the eastern Mediterranean Coast, through the Tigris and Euphrates valleys of Mesopotamia and down to the Persian Gulf. There, the foundation crops of the Western World were first domesticated. (more…)

Could a Hurricane Ever Strike Southern California?

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2012Environmentalaska current, america, annual, atlantic, bill patzert, california, california current, californians, climatologist, current flow, drought, earthquake, eastern pacific, el niño, fire, flood, four seasons, fuel, gale force, godzilla, goes 9, golden state, gulf coaster, hurricane, hurricane capital, hurricane john, hurricane linda, Japan, kathleen, maximum temperature, mother nature, noaa, nora, north pacific, northern baja california, northern hemisphere, old adage, pacific decadal oscillation, pacific hurricanes, pacific ocean, pdo, quakes, rain, rainfall, rancho cucamonga, ropical storm, santa ana, satellite, southern california, southern californians, summer, thunderstorm, tropical cyclone, united states, us east, water budget, wind

There’s an old adage (with several variations) that California has four seasons: earthquake, fire, flood and drought. While Californians happily cede the title of Hurricane Capital of America to U.S. East and Gulf coasters, every once in a while, Mother Nature sends a reminder to Southern Californians that they are not completely immune to the whims of tropical cyclones. Typically, this takes the form of rainfall from the remnants of a tropical cyclone in the eastern Pacific, as happened recently when the remnants of Hurricane John brought rain and thunderstorms to parts of Southern California. But could a hurricane ever make landfall in Southern California?

The answer, as it turns out, is yes, and no. While there has never been a documented case of a hurricane making landfall in California, the Golden State has had its share of run-ins and close calls with tropical cyclones. In fact, California has been affected by at least a few tropical cyclones in every decade since 1900. Over that timeframe, three of those storms brought gale-force winds to California: an unnamed California tropical storm in 1939, Kathleen in 1976 and Nora in 1997. But the primary threat from California tropical cyclones isn’t winds or storm surge. It’s rainfall — sometimes torrential — which has led to flooding, damage and, occasionally, casualties. (more…)

NASA/WHOI Voyage Set to Explore Link Between Sea Saltiness and Climate

By Guest PostSeptember 9, 2012Environment, Science3d picture, aquarius instrument, autonomous glider, azores, bahamas, climate change, climate model, data, david fratantoni, drought, effect, equator, eric lindstrom, evaporation, expedition, flood, fluctuate, global temperature, knorr, NASA, north africa, north atlantic, ocean, pattern, phenomena, planet, rainfall, rainy belt, raymond schmitt, research vessel, sac d, salinity processes, salinity variability, salt content, satellite technology, scale, spurs, upper layer, us midwest, voyage, water cycle, western coast, woods hole

A NASA-sponsored expedition is set to sail to the North Atlantic’s saltiest spot to get a detailed, 3-D picture of how salt content fluctuates in the ocean’s upper layers and how these variations are related to shifts in rainfall patterns around the planet.

The research voyage is part of a multi-year mission, dubbed the Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS), which will deploy multiple instruments in different regions of the ocean. The new data also will help calibrate the salinity measurements NASA’s Aquarius instrument has been collecting from space since August 2011. (more…)

Droughts are Pushing Trees to the Limit

By Guest PostSeptember 8, 2012Environmentaerial surveys, atmospheric sponge, borderland, carbon dioxide, catastrophic disruption, climate change, deficit, drought, ecological disturbance, elevation, embolism, forest service, four corners, greenhouse experiment, growing season, high plains, index, jeremy weiss, jonathan overpeck, julio betancourt, leaf water, Mexico, moisture, mountainous terrain, photosynthesis, plant growth, precipitation, regional warming, southwest, stomates, temperatures rise, university of arizona, US, vapor pressure, vicious circle, weather data, wildfires

Droughts in the Southwest made more severe by warming temperatures are putting plants in stressful growing conditions, a new study has found, identifying an increasingly water-thirsty atmosphere as a key force that sucks moisture from plants, leading to potentially higher stress – especially in mid and low elevations.

As temperatures rise and droughts become more severe in the Southwest, trees are increasingly up against extremely stressful growing conditions, especially in low to middle elevations, University of Arizona researchers report in a study soon to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences.

Lead author Jeremy Weiss, a senior research specialist in the UA department of geosciences, said: “We know the climate in the Southwest is getting warmer, but we wanted to investigate how the higher temperatures might interact with the highly variable precipitation typical of the region.” (more…)

Climate and Drought Lessons from Ancient Egypt

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Culture, Environment, Scienceachilles heel, ancient egypt, babylonian, benjamin horton, charcoal, christopher bernhardt, climate, climate change, drought, egypt, egyptian history, evolution of societies, geological record, giza, great pyramid, human history, jean daniel stanley, marcia mcnutt, microscopic charcoal, middle east, modern iraq, nile basin vegetation, nile delta, nile delta sediment, old kingdom, pollen, pyramid building time, spinx, syrian kingdom, ugarit kingdom, university of pennsylvania, uruk kingdom

Using Fossil Pollen to Augment Historical Records

Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt’s Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time.

“Humans have a long history of having to deal with climate change,” said Christopher Bernhardt, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey. “Along with other research, this study geologically reveals that the evolution of societies is sometimes tied to climate variability at all scales – whether decadal or millennial.” (more…)

Impulsive Micromanagers Help Plants to Adapt, Survive

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Scienceatmospheric co2, climate, concentration, drought, environmental change, environmental factor, global change, jay lennon, jen lau, plant, precipitation pattern, soil microbe, warmer temperature

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Soil microbes are impulsive. So much so that they help plants face the challenges of a rapidly changing climate.

Jen Lau and Jay Lennon, Michigan State University biologists, studied how plants and microbes work together to help plants survive the effects of global changes, such as increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations, warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. The results, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that microbes in the ground not only interact with plants, but they also prompt them to respond to environmental changes.

“We found that these changes in the plants happen primarily because of what global changes do to the belowground microbes rather than the plant itself,” said Lau, who works at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station. “Drought stress affects microbes, and they, in turn, drive plants to flower earlier and help plants grow and reproduce when faced with drought.” (more…)

Study Links Past Changes in Monsoon to Major Shifts in Indian Civilizations

By Guest PostMarch 15, 2012Environmentasia, band of heavy rain, bay of bengal, camilo ponton, civilizations, climate change, cmz, core monsoon zone, dorian fuller, drilling vessel, drought, equator, eth, global warming, godavari river, harappan civilization, humid monsoon, India, indian monsoon, indian peninsula, insolation, inter tropical convergence zone, itcz, joides resolution, liviu giosan, modern agriculture, monsoon, northern hemisphere, ocean, paleo climatic information, plankton fossil, sahara desert, sediment core, solar radiation, tim eglinton, tropical forest, vegetation, whoi, zurich

A fundamental shift in the Indian monsoon has occurred over the last few millennia, from a steady humid monsoon that favored lush vegetation to extended periods of drought, reports a new study led by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The study has implications for our understanding of the monsoon’s response to climate change.

The Indian peninsula sustains over a billion people, yet it lies at the same latitude as the Sahara Desert. Without a monsoon, most of India would be dry and uninhabitable. The ability to predict the timing and amount of the next year’s monsoon is vital, yet even our knowledge of the monsoon’s past variability remains incomplete. (more…)