Drought stress encumbers the growth of turfgrass principally by disrupting the plant-water relations and physiological functions. The present study was carried out to appraise the role of silicon (Si) in improving the drought tolerance in Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.). Drought stress and four levels (0, 200, 400, and 800 mg L(-1)) of Si (Na2SiO3·9H2O) were imposed after 2 months old pla...

The effect of climate change on the frequency and intensity of droughts across the contiguous United States over the next century is assessed by applying Standardized Precipitation Indices and the Palmer Drought Severity Index to the full suite of 22 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change General Circulation Models for three IPCC-SRES emissions scenarios (B1, A1B, and A2 from the Special Rep...

Hotter, longer, and more frequent global change-type drought events may profoundly impact terrestrial ecosystems by triggering widespread vegetation mortality. However, severe drought is only one component of global change, and ecological effects of drought may be compounded by other drivers, such as anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition and nonnative plant invasion. Elevated N deposition, for ...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops in the world. It is the third most important food grain crop in the developing world and is estimated that the demand for maize in developing countries will grow by 50%, from 558 million tons in 1995 to 837 million tons in 2020. Much of this increased demand will be needed by domestic supply for developing countries, which will require inte...

Protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation are major signaling events induced by osmotic stress in higher plants. Here, we showed that a SNF1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2), SRK2C, is an osmotic-stress-activated protein kinase in Arabidopsis thaliana that can significantly impact drought tolerance of Arabidopsis plants. Knockout mutants of SRK2C exhibited drought hypersensitivity in their root...

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gasotransmitter and plays an important role in many physiological processes in mammals. Studies of its functions in plants are attracting ever growing interest, for example, its ability to enhance drought resistance in Arabidopsis. A general role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in plant adaptive responses to drought stress has thereby increased our interest to delve into the p...

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Regional climate modeling Wildfire potential Drought KBDI Soil moisture NDVI Regional climate modeling is a technique for simulating high-resolution physical processes in the atmosphere, soil and vegetation. It can be used to evaluate wildfire potential by either providing meteorological conditions for computation of fire indices or predicting soil moisture as a ...

Global warming is currently of great concern. Yet the ecological effects of low-frequency climate variations remain largely unknown. Recent analyses of interdecadal variability in population abundance of the Oriental migratory locust (Locusta migratoria manilensis) in China have revealed negative associations with temperature and positive associations with Yangtze drought and flood frequencies ...