Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Drought hits rivers first and more strongly than agriculture

The study reports that droughts develop slowly and have delayed and multi-faceted impacts. As such, the full drought phenomenon and its consequences are usually not readily perceived, in contrast to faster developing extreme weather events, like floods or heat waves.

Before crops wither and agriculture is affected, runoff and hence water resources are impacted.

picture: Andrea Carri (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu), licensed under CC BY 3.0

“With the persistent rainfall deficit this summer across large parts of Western Europe, drought has recently become more perceivable. It has already caused serious societal and ecosystem impacts along its development pathways.” says Rene Orth, group leader at Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany.

The study reveals these typical drought development pathways: rainfall deficits propagate first through soil moisture reductions, then to river runoff depletions, and finally cause impacts on vegetation and crop yields. Deciphering this partitioning of water deficits across different parts of the freshwater system is a crucial step forward in mitigation strategies, as the respective water anomalies threaten different societal sectors and ecosystems.

The researchers suggest that drought response measures need to be tailored based on their new findings on drought development: Early into a drought, response measures should focus on adapting to low(er) stream flows by more efficiently using and storing water.

Further into the drought, the focus should be on irrigation support of essential crops and vegetation, while balancing and temporarily limiting other water uses. “Such improved drought management might become even more relevant in the future, with possibly increasing drought frequency and/or magnitude as the climate changes” says Georgia Destouni, Professor at Stockholm University in Sweden.

The study was conducted by Rene Orth (rene.orth@bgc-jena.mpg.de), group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, and Georgia Destouni (georgia.destouni@natgeo.su.se), Professor at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

Dr. Renè Orth, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
Groupleader Hydrology-Biosphere-Climate Interactions
Email: rene.orth@bgc-jena.mpg.de
Phone: +49 3641 576250

Originalpublikation:

Orth R. and G. Destouni, 2018. Drought reduces blue-water fluxes more strongly than green-water fluxes in Europe, Nat. Commun. (2018) 9:3602
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06013-7

Dr. Eberhard Fritz | Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie

Im Focus: Biotechnology: Triggered by light, a novel way to switch on an enzyme

In living cells, enzymes drive biochemical metabolic processes enabling reactions to take place efficiently. It is this very ability which allows them to be used as catalysts in biotechnology, for example to create chemical products such as pharmaceutics. Researchers now identified an enzyme that, when illuminated with blue light, becomes catalytically active and initiates a reaction that was previously unknown in enzymatics. The study was published in "Nature Communications".

Enzymes: they are the central drivers for biochemical metabolic processes in every living cell, enabling reactions to take place efficiently. It is this very...

Im Focus: New double-contrast technique picks up small tumors on MRI

Early detection of tumors is extremely important in treating cancer. A new technique developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis offers a significant advance in using magnetic resonance imaging to pick out even very small tumors from normal tissue. The work is published May 25 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

researchers at the University of California, Davis offers a significant advance in using magnetic resonance imaging to pick out even very small tumors from...

Im Focus: I-call - When microimplants communicate with each other / Innovation driver digitization - "Smart Health“

Microelectronics as a key technology enables numerous innovations in the field of intelligent medical technology. The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT coordinates the BMBF cooperative project "I-call" realizing the first electronic system for ultrasound-based, safe and interference-resistant data transmission between implants in the human body.

When microelectronic systems are used for medical applications, they have to meet high requirements in terms of biocompatibility, reliability, energy...

Im Focus: When predictions of theoretical chemists become reality

Thomas Heine, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at TU Dresden, together with his team, first predicted a topological 2D polymer in 2019. Only one year later, an international team led by Italian researchers was able to synthesize these materials and experimentally prove their topological properties. For the renowned journal Nature Materials, this was the occasion to invite Thomas Heine to a News and Views article, which was published this week. Under the title "Making 2D Topological Polymers a reality" Prof. Heine describes how his theory became a reality.

Ultrathin materials are extremely interesting as building blocks for next generation nano electronic devices, as it is much easier to make circuits and other...

Im Focus: Rolling into the deep

Scientists took a leukocyte as the blueprint and developed a microrobot that has the size, shape and moving capabilities of a white blood cell. Simulating a blood vessel in a laboratory setting, they succeeded in magnetically navigating the ball-shaped microroller through this dynamic and dense environment. The drug-delivery vehicle withstood the simulated blood flow, pushing the developments in targeted drug delivery a step further: inside the body, there is no better access route to all tissues and organs than the circulatory system. A robot that could actually travel through this finely woven web would revolutionize the minimally-invasive treatment of illnesses.

A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart invented a tiny microrobot that resembles a white blood cell...