Drought Research News

June 1, 2024

Top Headlines

U.S. Drought-Monitoring System Outpaced by Climate Changes

May 20, 2024 — A new study reports that the U.S. Drought Monitor's weekly maps of nationwide drought conditions -- which help direct emergency federal aid -- have captured the steady march of climate change, but the Drought Monitor has itself failed to adapt to ...

Roots Are a Key to Drought-Tolerant Maize

May 22, 2024 — Maize can grow successfully in very different local conditions. An international study has now demonstrated the important role of the plant root system. The researchers analyzed more than 9,000 varieties in the study and were able to show that their ...

Warming Climate Intensifies Flash Droughts Worldwide

May 21, 2024 — Sudden, severe dry spells known as flash droughts are rising in intensity around the world, with a notable exception in mountainous Central Asia, where flash drought extent is shrinking, according to new research. Heat and changes to precipitation ...

Unraveling the Drought Dilemma: Can Reservoirs Be a Carbon Source?

May 20, 2024 — A team delves into the spatiotemporal patterns of water volume and total organic carbon concentration of agricultural ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:02pm EDT

High Groundwater Depletion Risk in South Korea in 2080s

May 30, 2024 — Team utilizes advanced statistical techniques to project the future groundwater depletion ...

Rising Temperatures Will Significantly Reduce Streamflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin as Groundwater Levels Fall

May 23, 2024 — The Colorado River makes life possible in many Western cities and supports agriculture that sustains people throughout the country. Most of the ...

Airborne Technology Brings New Hope to Map Shallow Aquifers in Earth's Most Arid Deserts

May 16, 2024 — The new technique will map the top of the aquifer, called the 'water table,' spanning areas as large as hundreds of kilometers using a radar mounted ...

Take Cover! Survey Shows Tornado Warnings Widely Misunderstood

May 9, 2024 — A study showed that about half of those surveyed in the mid-South could not accurately identify a tornado ...

Sister Cities Can Help Communities Better Navigate the Climate Crisis

May 3, 2024 — Anthropologists suggest in a new study that establishing networks of 'sister cities' dedicated to addressing the impact of natural disasters can mitigate the devastation wrought by climate ...

Plants Utilize Drought Stress Hormone to Block Snacking Spider Mites

May 3, 2024 — Recent findings that plants employ a drought-survival mechanism to also defend against nutrient-sucking pests could inform future crop breeding programs aimed at achieving better broadscale pest ...

Wildfires in Wet African Forests Have Doubled in Recent Decades

May 2, 2024 — Climate change and human activities like deforestation are causing more fires in central and west Africa's wet, tropical forests, according to the first-ever comprehensive survey there. The fires ...

Diversity and Productivity Go Branch-in-Branch

Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers found that forests with higher trait diversity not only adapt better to climate change but may also thrive. The study unveiled how tree functional trait diversity plays a pivotal role in ...

How Soil Microbes Survive in Harsh Desert Environments

Apr. 17, 2024 — Prolonged droughts followed by sudden bursts of rainfall -- how do desert soil bacteria manage to survive such harsh conditions? This long-debated question has now been answered by microbiologists. ...

New Approach Needed to Save Australia's Non-Perennial Rivers

Apr. 10, 2024 — An extensive review of current research incorporating geomorphology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecology and Indigenous knowledges identifies prevailing factors that shape water and energy flows in ...

Scientist Helps Link Climate Change to Madagascar's Megadrought

Apr. 9, 2024 — A team reveals a clear link between human-driven climate change and the years-long drought currently gripping southern ...

Groundbreaking Research in Groundwater's Role in Ecosystem Sustainability

Apr. 3, 2024 — Until now, groundwater -- a critical water resource around the globe, especially in dry regions -- has been largely unstudied in its importance and role in sustaining ecosystems. New groundbreaking ...

Australia on Track for Unprecedented, Decades-Long Megadroughts

Apr. 2, 2024 — Australia could soon see megadroughts that last for more than 20 years, according to new modelling. The researchers' bleak findings are before factoring in human impact on the climate since the ...

Droughts in Europe Could Be Avoided With Faster Emissions Cuts

Mar. 25, 2024 — Models suggest summer rainfall in southern Europe could decline by up to 48% by the year 2100 if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise ...

Maize Genes Control Little Helpers in the Soil

Mar. 25, 2024 — Tiny organisms such as bacteria and fungi help to promote the health and function of plant roots. It is commonly assumed that the composition of these microbes is dependent on the properties of the ...

Diverse Habitats Help Salmon Weather Unpredictable Climate Changes

Mar. 14, 2024 — Restored salmon habitat should resemble financial portfolios, offering fish diverse options for feeding and survival so that they can weather various conditions as the climate changes, a new study ...

Drought, Soil Desiccation Cracking, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: An Overlooked Feedback Loop Exacerbating Climate Change

Mar. 13, 2024 — Soil stores 80 percent of carbon on earth, yet with increasing cycles of drought, that crucial reservoir is cracking and breaking down, releasing even more greenhouse gases creating an amplified ...

How Climate Change Risks Increase at a National Scale as the Level of Global Warming Increases

Feb. 29, 2024 — Researchers have quantified how climate change risks to human and natural systems increase at a national scale as the level of global warming increases. A collection of eight studies -- all focusing ...

Study Finds Drought Fuels Invasive Species After Wildfires

Feb. 28, 2024 — Scientists uncover the intricate dance between drought, wildfires and invasive species in Southern California's coastal sage scrub ...

Scientists Assemble a Richer Picture of the Plight and Resilience of the Foothill Yellow-Legged Frog

Feb. 26, 2024 — Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was ...

Is the Amazon Forest Approaching a Tipping Point?

Feb. 14, 2024 — Global warming may be interacting with regional rainfall and deforestation to accelerate forest loss in the Amazon, pushing it towards partial or total collapse. New research has identified the ...

Controlling Root Growth Direction Could Help Save Crops and Mitigate Climate Change

Feb. 14, 2024 — Scientists have determined how the well-known plant hormone ethylene is crucial in controlling the angle at which roots grow. The findings can be used to engineer plants and crops that withstand the ...

New Study Points to More Climate Extremes

Feb. 6, 2024 — A new study has found similarities between long-term climatic changes in South Australia and temperate agricultural areas in Argentina -- highlighting similarities across these Southern Hemisphere ...

Paper Provides a Clearer Picture of Severe Hydro Hazards

Jan. 24, 2024 — A new study now provides a global examination of drought-pluvial volatility -- or the tendency to shift from one weather extreme to ...

A New, Rigorous Assessment of OpenET Accuracy for Supporting Satellite-Based Water Management

Jan. 16, 2024 — Sustainable water management is an increasing concern in arid regions around the world, and scientists and regulators are turning to remote sensing tools like OpenET to help track and manage water ...

Study Quantifies How Aquifer Depletion Threatens Crop Yields

Jan. 15, 2024 — Three decades of data have informed a new Nebraska-led study that shows how the depletion of groundwater -- the same that many farmers rely on for irrigation -- can threaten food production amid ...

Record Heat in 2023 Worsened Global Droughts, Floods and Wildfires

Jan. 11, 2024 — Record heat across the world profoundly impacted the global water cycle in 2023, contributing to severe storms, floods, megadroughts and bushfires, new research ...

'Carbon Vault' Peat Suffers Greatly from Drought

Jan. 10, 2024 — Peatlands are affected more by drought than expected. This is concerning, as these ecosystems are an important ally in the fight against climate change. Following long periods of drought, peat is ...

Global Study of Extreme Drought Impacts on Grasslands and Shrublands

Jan. 8, 2024 — A global study shows that the effects of extreme drought -- which is expected to increase in frequency with climate change -- has been greatly underestimated for grasslands and shrublands. The ...

Genetic Diversity of Wild North American Grapes Mapped

Dec. 19, 2023 — Wild North American grapes are now less of a mystery after researchers decoded and catalogued the genetic diversity of nine species of this valuable wine ...