Dualism of Drought and Water in Drylands

This paper analyzes Thea Astley’s fourth Miles Franklin award novel ——Drylands from the perspective of the contradiction of drought and water. It depicted a fully-fledged drought and an eminent absence of water. It was the crisis of drought in the tropical small town of Drylands in rural Queensland that forced villagers to flee the arid land and seek refuge in costal or watery areas. Characters’ fate was closely related with drought and water.

Effects of ZAI (PIT PLANTING) and Different Manure Rates on the Growth and Yield of Sorghum

A field experiment was conducted at Jimtilo village along Maiduguri Jos/Kano road geographically located latitude 11o 501 5811North12o 561 2311 East above sea level. The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of Zai (pit planting) and different manure rate on growth and yield of sorghum. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) replicated 3 times and consisted of 4 levels of treatments of 0, 1 ton/ha, 2ton/ha and 3ton/ha of manure (cowdung). The result of the experiment indicated that there was significant (p< 0.05) difference among and between treatments used. It was further observed that 3ton/ha manure applied gave significantly (p< 0.05) higher yield and performed better than all other treatments. The control however,gave the least value as all other treatments performed better than the control. It is therefore recommended that the application of 3 ton/ha should be adopted by farmers practicing pit planting or reclaiming arid land for sustainable agricultural production. Keywords: zai (pit planting), manure, cow dung, growth and yield.

Historical changes in plant water use and need in the continental United States

A robust method for characterizing the biophysical environment of terrestrial vegetation uses the relationship between Actual Evapotranspiration (AET) and Climatic Water Deficit (CWD). These variables are usually estimated from a water balance model rather than measured directly and are often more representative of ecologically-significant changes than temperature or precipitation. We evaluate trends and spatial patterns in AET and CWD in the Continental United States (CONUS) during 1980–2019 using a gridded water balance model. The western US had linear regression slopes indicating increasing CWD and decreasing AET (drying), while the eastern US had generally opposite trends. When limits to plant performance characterized by AET and CWD are exceeded, vegetation assemblages change. Widespread increases in aridity throughout the west portends shifts in the distribution of plants limited by available moisture. A detailed look at Sequoia National Park illustrates the high degree of fine-scale spatial variability that exists across elevation and topographical gradients. Where such topographical and climatic diversity exists, appropriate use of our gridded data will require sub-setting to an appropriate area and analyzing according to categories of interest such as vegetation communities or across obvious physical gradients. Recent studies have successfully applied similar water balance models to fire risk and forest structure in both western and eastern U.S. forests, arid-land spring discharge, amphibian colonization and persistence in wetlands, whitebark pine mortality and establishment, and the distribution of arid-land grass species and landscape scale vegetation condition. Our gridded dataset is available free for public use. Our findings illustrate how a simple water balance model can identify important trends and patterns at site to regional scales. However, at finer scales, environmental heterogeneity is driving a range of responses that may not be simply characterized by a single trend.