No relief for Pacific Northwest drought
It does not appear there will be any major relief this spring or summer from the unusually dry weather that has recently hit the Pacific Northwest, according to new projections of drought severity and fire risk that are based on "general circulation" models that forecast global climate. The analysis, which was developed by researchers at the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and Oregon State Univers...Six million Africans face famine because of locusts, drought
With locusts and drought having destroyed crops and stripped grazing land for six million people across West Africa, small farmers have started selling livestock cheaply and eating the seed corn they should plant during next month's expected rains, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today. "The combined effect of drought and locust attack, pa...Genetic discovery could lead to drought-resistant plants
New knowledge of how plants "breathe" may help us breed and select plants that would better survive scorching summers, says a University of Toronto study. The paper, which offers the first example of a gene that controls how leaves close their surface pores, appears in the July 12 issue of Current Biology. "It's very exciting," says U of T botany professor and senior author Malcolm Campbel...Past droughts geographically widespread in the West, according to tree-ring data
When it's dry, it's dry all over, according to a new analysis of more than 400 years of annual streamflow in the Upper Colorado and Salt and Verde river basins. By using data from tree rings, University of Arizona researchers conclude that water supply for those western rivers fluctuated in synchrony during periods of severe drought. The study goes back almost 800 years in the Salt-Verde b...Anyway you slice it, tomatoes cut through drought with new gene
New tomato research has its roots in yielding more food to feed more people, according to Dr. Kendal Hirschi about results announced today. The team made tomato plants over-express the gene, AVP1, which resulted in stronger, larger root systems and that resulted in roots making better use of...Australian Grape Glut Dries Up as Drought Bites
A year ago, Australia was awash in wine. But thanks to the worst drought in a century, the 2007 vintage will be one of the leanest in years and the grape glut is drying up fast. For winemakers like Terry Dolle, who has a small vineyard near the cool-climate town of Orange west of Sydney, the past year has been a "series of disasters". "We got a really big frost in Nov...Desert Droughts Shorten Mountain Snow Cover, Reveals Study
A new study by American geologists has indicated that wind blown dust from drought-stricken and disturbed lands in the Southwest can shorten the duration of mountain snow cover hundreds of miles away in the Colorado mountains by roughly a month. The study found that seasonal snow coverage in the sub-alpine and alpine areas of the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado disappea...