In the context of global climate change, it is important to monitor abnormal changes in extreme precipitation events that lead frequent floods. This research used indices describe variations and analyzed characteristics four climatic (arid, semi-arid, semi-humid humid) regions across China. The equidistant cumulative distribution function (EDCDF) method was downscale bias-correct daily eight Co...

The extent of microbial community diversity in two similar sandy surface soils from Virginia and Delaware (USA) was analysed with a culture-independent small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene-based cloning approach with about 400–700 SSU rDNA clones obtained from each sample. While there were no operational taxonomic units (OTUs) having more than three individuals, about 96–99% of the OTUs ...

It is widely recognized that forest and water resources are intricately linked. Globally, changes in forest cover to accommodate agriculture and urban development introduce additional challenges for water management. The U.S. Southeast typifies this global trend as predictions of land-use change and population growth suggest increased pressure on water resources in coming years. Close attention...

Governmental mandates and public awareness have forced progressively smaller and less sophisticated agencies and organizations to initiate stream monitoring programs, particularly in urban and urbanizing areas. Yet many of these monitoring efforts lack either a coherent conceptual framework or appropriately chosen methods, and they rely on monitoring techniques that are simply infeasible for th...

Classical field methods of reconstructing drought using tree rings in humid, temperate regions typically target old trees from drought-prone sites. This approach limits investigators to a handful of species and excludes large amounts of data that might be useful, especially for coverage gaps in large-scale networks. By sampling in more “typical” forests, network density and species diversity wo...

Abstract The impacts of climate change and human activities on vegetation dynamics have attracted wide attention, especially in sensitive vulnerable areas such as the Qingzang Plateau China. In this region, a series ecological restoration projects been launched while effectiveness these requires evaluation further improvements. Remote sensing with high temporal resolution spatial coverage is an...

By regionalizing precipitation in 113 synoptic stations Iran, the characteristics of precipitations and occurrence droughts each region were investigated over a period 30 years, 1988–2017. Elevation, latitude distance from moisture source have caused strong East–West South–North gradients across territory Iran so that average annual increases 55 mm eastern central regions to 1,730 south-west co...

The Middle East encompasses five ecological domains: (1) the humid highlands and their intermontane valleys, where rainfed farming was begun and permanent settlements were first established; (2) the semi-arid steppes, where the lesser amount and instability of rainfall made rainfed farming marginal but still provided vegetative resources that could be utilized by semi-nomadic pastoralists; (3) ...