The diplopods Cingalobolus bugnioni and Aulacobolus excellens possess an epicuticle formed of lipoproteins. But unlike in insect cuticles, the epicuticle lades an outer lipid layer. The epicuticle is found only in the animals collected in summer months. At the commencement of the rainy season the new cuticle that is formed following moulting is without an epicuticle. The periodical presence of ...

A process-based model for semi-arid grassland ecosystems was developed. It is driven by standard daily meteorological data and simulates with a daily time step the seasonal course of root, aboveground green, and dead biomass. Water infiltration and redistribution in the soil, transpiration and evaporation are simulated in a coupled water budget submodel. The main plant processes are photosynthe...

Estimating the magnitude of the different fluxes in the hydrological cycle is essential if we are to predict the impacts of climate change. However, climate change is acting on a dynamic three dimensional globe where change in one region may produce impacts in another. This creates a need to expand the current climate change studies to encompass the entire globe. Evaporation is a key component ...

We replace the existing land surface parameterization scheme, the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS), in a regional climate model (RegCM) with the newly developed Common Land Model (CLM0). The main improvements of CLM0 include a detailed 10-layer soil model, the distinction between soil ice and water phases, a linked photosynthesis-stomatal conductance model, a multilayer snow model, a...

Results from the 14 land surface parameterization schemes involved in the PILPS-RICE Workshop are compared for a soya crop growing season (from June to September). During this period, the transpiration flux dominates the total surface evapotranspiration and observed data from HAPEX-MOBILHY are available for comparison. Results indicate that during the month of June half of the models fall withi...

Soil hydrological processes play an important role in land-atmosphere system. In most climate models, these processes are described by soil moisture variations in the first 2 m of soil resulting from precipitation, evaporation, and transpiration. Groundwater effects on soil moisture variations and surface evaporation are either neglected or not explicitly treated. Although groundwater may have ...

A simulation model was developed to estimate the effect of deficit irrigation upon crop yield. The model was designed to provide relative yield estimates for numerous combinations of irrigation system, crop growth and irrigation management parameters. A daily soil moisture balance was used to predict evaporation and transpiration from which crop yields were estimated. Gross irrigation water req...