drought – UCI

UCI researchers: Climate change will alter the position of the Earth’s tropical rain belt

Written on January 18, 2021.

Difference by the year 2100 expected to impact global biodiversity, food security January 18, 2020 – Future climate change will cause a regionally uneven shifting of the tropical rain belt – a narrow band of heavy precipitation near the equator – according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions. This development may threaten food security for billions of people. In a study published today in Nature Climate Change, the interdisciplinary team...

UCI Engineers Evaluate Snow Drought in Different Parts of the World

Written on August 3, 2020.

Deficit in Western United States found to be of increased intensity in recent years August 3, 2020 – Environmental engineers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a new framework for characterizing snow droughts around the world. Using this tool to analyze conditions from 1980 to 2018, the researchers found a 28-percent increase in the length of intensified snow-water deficits in the Western United States during the second half of the study period. Results from...

UCI, UC Merced: California forest die-off caused by depletion of deep-soil water

Written on July 1, 2019.

Study warns of threats from future concurrent drought and heat events Irvine, Calif., July 1, 2019 – A catastrophic forest die-off in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range in 2015-2016 was caused by the inability of trees to reach diminishing supplies of subsurface water following years of severe drought and abnormally warm temperatures. That’s the conclusion by researchers from the University of California, Irvine and UC Merced outlined in a study published today in Nature Geoscience. “In...

Climate Change-driven Droughts are Getting Hotter, UCI Study Finds

Written on August 1, 2018.

Temperature increases during dry periods outpace average climate warming August 1, 2018 – Dry months are getting hotter in large parts of the United States, another sign that human-caused climate change is forcing people to encounter new extremes. In a study published today in Science Advances, researchers at the University of California, Irvine report that temperatures during droughts have been rising faster than in average climates in recent decades, and they point to...

UCI scientists unveil new satellite-based global drought severity index

Written on December 11, 2017.

Enhanced monitoring tool adds groundwater storage to assessment factors New Orleans, Dec. 11, 2017 – Just in time for the holidays, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions are rolling out a new satellite-based drought severity index for climate watchers worldwide. Relying on data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission, the index adds terrestrial water storage (groundwater) to drought assessments, augmenting commonly used tools most...

On the Water Front

Written on December 12, 2016.

Renowned hydrologist joins UCI to lead interdisciplinary research efforts Dec. 12, 2016 — Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, an expert in hydrology and water resources, recently joined the University of California, Irvine as a Distinguished Professor of civil & environmental engineering. After nearly three decades at the University of Minnesota, with her research laboratory perched atop a waterfall on the Mississippi River, she moved to a region suffering from a severe drought, but the native...

UCI-led bio sci team awarded $3 million by DOE to investigate drought impact on soil microbes

Written on November 7, 2016.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded a UCI research team $3 million over three years to explore how drought affects microbes in surface soil that are vital to plant life and to the exchange of carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas – among the Earth’s oceans, plants, soil and air. Steven Allison, associate professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, is the project leader. He and UCI colleagues and fellow investigators at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab will try to develop cutting-edge...

UCI-led Group Suggests Ways to Better Manage Urban Stormwater Runoff

Written on October 16, 2015.

Rain barrels, absorbent roofs, permeable pavement could help reduce waste As meteorologists monitor the El Nino condition currently gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean, Californians look with hope to the much-needed rain and snow it could yield. But if we’re going to make the most of the precipitation, we need to put a LID on it. LIDs, or low-impact development technologies, mimic pre-urban stream functions. Examples are green roofs that absorb and evapotranspire rainfall; rainwater tanks...

Hydrological hat trick

Written on August 31, 2015.

UCI water and drought expert Amir AghaKouchak gets work published in three major journals within two weeks Brian Bell / UCI Here in drought-stricken California, lots of families have dinnertime discussions about water, but rarely do they have the same depth and insight as those happening in the AghaKouchak household. Amir AghaKouchak, assistant professor of civil & environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine, is an expert on drought and water issues; and his wife,...

Hot, Dry and Human-caused

Written on August 26, 2015.

UCI and other scientists say Californians must learn to live within the state’s new climate Aug. 26, 2015 – California’s current extreme drought must be a lesson for managing water in a warmer, more densely populated world, say UCI and fellow drought experts writing in the journal Nature. Civil & environmental engineer Amir AghaKouchak, political scientist David Feldman and ecology & evolutionary biologist Travis Huxman call for greater recognition of the role...

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