We understand droughts better
Photo: Xataka
The way the world measures and prepares for droughts has just been transformed by new research. Scientists from UC San Diego and Stanford universities have revealed a hidden trend in global precipitation, demonstrating that the crucial factor in crop stability is not just the volume of rainbut yours origin.
The study, published in the journal Sustainability of nature (link in first paragraph), traced atmospheric vapor to its initial point of evaporation: the ocean or the earth’s surface (soil, forests and lakes). The shocking phenomenon that has emerged is that when a crop relies excessively on moisture from land surfaces – so-called “recycled rain” – it becomes much more vulnerable to drought, reduced soil moisture and loss of productivity.
Better understand droughts
The reason? Ocean-derived moisture tends to move in large systems, generating heavier and more consistent precipitation. On the other hand, the rain system generated by local evaporation of the earth produces lighter and less predictable rain. Researchers established a risk threshold: if more than a third of a region’s precipitation comes from land, agricultural vulnerability increases significantly.
This discovery fundamentally changes drought forecasting and global agricultural planning. Key regions such as the US Midwest and tropical East Africa have been identified as high-risk hotspots. In these places, deforestation or exhaustion…
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