Available energy (often expressed in terms of potential evaporation) and precipitation largely determine annual evapotranspiration and runoff rates in a region. The ratio of annual potential evaporation to precipitation, referred to as the aridity index by Budyko, has been shown to describe the evaporation ratio (the ratio of annual evapotranspiration to precipitation) of catchments from a rang...

Eddy covariance was used to measure energy fluxes from July 2000 – June 2002 above the tree canopy and above the understory in a mature, naturally regenerated slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm. var. elliottii) – longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) flatwoods forest. Understory latent energy (λE) and sensible heat (H) fluxes accounted for 45% and 55% of whole-ecosystem fluxes, respectively, wi...

Precipitation, evapotranspiration (ET), and soil moisture are the key controls for the productivity and functioning of temperate grassland ecosystems in Inner Mongolia, northern China. Quantifying the soil moisture dynamics and water balances in the grasslands is essential to sustainable grassland management under global climate change. We conducted a case study on the variability and character...

Precipitation is the only water supply and most important factor affecting vegetation growth on the slopes of semi-arid Loess Plateau of China. Based on precipitation data from 7 synoptic stations in the study area over the period 1957-2012, the trends of precipitation and standardized precipitation index (SPI) were analyzed by using linear regression, Mann-Kendall, and Spearman's Rho tests at ...

Orographic precipitation has a large impact on channel morphology and rock uplift via a positive feedback to erosion. We show that in the Eastern Cordillera of Bolivia, channel concavities reach their highest values where annual precipitation increases in the downstream direction, exceeding 3000 mm. The steepest channels are upstream of this zone of high concavity, where precipitation rates are...

Due to the scarcity of field observations and geodetic measurements in catchments in the Karakoram Mountains in Western China, obtaining precipitation data for the high mountains involves large uncertainties and difficulties. In this study, we used a functional relationship between the annual glacier accumulation and summer temperature at the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) to derive precipitat...

Climatic controls on fluvial landscapes are commonly characterized in terms of mean annual precipitation. However, physical erosion processes are driven by extreme events and are therefore more directly related to the intensity, duration, and frequency of individual rainfall events. Climate also influences erosional processes indirectly by controlling vegetation. In this study, we explore how i...

Tree mortality due to warming and drought is a critical aspect of forest ecosystem in responding to climate change. Spatial patterns of tree mortality induced by drought and its influencing factors, however, have yet to be documented at the global scale. We collected observations from 248 sites globally where trees have died due to drought and then assessed the effects of climatic and forest fa...

Climate change effects on wildfire occurrence have been attributed primarily to increases in temperatures causing earlier snowpack ablation and longer fire seasons. Variability in precipitation is also an important control on snowpack accumulation and, therefore, on timing of meltwater inputs. We evaluate the correlation of total area burned and area burned severely to snowmelt-induced streamfl...