For evaluating climate change impacts on biodiversity, extensive experiments are urgently needed to complement popular non-mechanistic models which map future ecosystem properties onto their current climatic niche. Here, we experimentally test the main prediction of these models by means of a novel multi-site approach. We implement rainfall manipulations—irrigation and drought—to dryland plant communities situated along a steep climatic gradient in a global biodiversity hotspot containing many wild progenitors of crops.

California saw its driest year on record in 2013, and the drought is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. More than ever, urban water managers are seeking effective strategies to address water scarcity, with increasing interest in reducing residential water demand. To help achieve these goals, researchers at UCR’s School of Public Policy have partnered with local water agencies in an effort to evaluate the effectiveness of ongoing residential water conservation programs. Two general messages have emerged from from these partnerships to date.

Rainfall prediction is very crucial for India as its economy is based on mainly agriculture. The parameters that are required to predict the rainfall are very complex in nature and also contain lots of uncertainties. Although various approaches have been earlier suggested for prediction, the soft computing is found to be very effective in developing models which emulates human being and derives expertise like human being to adapt to the situations and learn from the experiences.

Groundwater is essential to modern human survival during drought periods. There is also growing geological evidence of springs associated with stone tools and hominin fossils in the East African Rift System (EARS) during a critical period for hominin evolution (from 1.8 Ma). However it is not known how vulnerable these springs may have been to climate variability and whether groundwater availability may have played a part in human evolution.

Water is crucial to plant growth and development. Environmental water deficiency triggers an osmotic stress signalling cascade, which induces short-term cellular responses to reduce water loss and long-term responses to remodel the transcriptional network and physiological and developmental processes. Several signalling components that have been identified by extensive genetic screens for altered sensitivities to osmotic stress seem to function downstream of the perception of osmotic stress.