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Monsoon Activity (monsoon + activity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	50%

Selected Abstracts

Influences of the Indian Ocean dipole on the Asian summer monsoon in the following year

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 14 2008
Yuan Yuan
Abstract By exploring the spatiotemporal features of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) both on the sea surface and in the subsurface ocean, the present article reveals that the subsurface dipole mode, with larger amplitude than the surface one, is likely to prolong the dipole signal for a long time. Using the wind and geopotential height data from NCEP/NCAR, this article further investigates IOD impacts on the Asian summer monsoon activities in the following year. A normal (late) South China Sea summer monsoon onset is associated with the previous positive (negative) IOD. In the summer after an IOD year, a positive (negative) IOD tends to induce a stronger (weaker) 100-hPa South Asian High, with a more (less) eastward-extending high ridge, and also an enhanced (a weakened) 500-hPa western Pacific subtropical high, with a westward-advancing (an eastward-retreating) high ridge. Influenced by the anomalous 850-hPa Asian monsoon circulations and the longitudinal position of the 500-hPa subtropical high ridge, summer rainfall in China also exhibits different patterns corresponding to different phases of the IOD in the previous year. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society [source]

Post-wildfire changes in suspended sediment rating curves: Sabino Canyon, Arizona

HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 11 2007
Sharon L. E. Desilets
Abstract Wildfire has been shown to increase erosion by several orders of magnitude, but knowledge regarding short-term variations in post-fire sediment transport processes has been lacking. We present a detailed analysis of the immediate post-fire sediment dynamics in a semi-arid basin in the southwestern USA based on suspended sediment rating curves. During June and July 2003, the Aspen Fire in the Coronado National Forest of southern Arizona burned an area of 343 km2. Surface water samples were collected in an affected watershed using an event-based sampling strategy. Sediment rating parameters were determined for individual storm events during the first 18 months after the fire. The highest sediment concentrations were observed immediately after the fire. Through the two subsequent monsoon seasons there was a progressive change in rating parameters related to the preferential removal of fine to coarse sediment. During the corresponding winter seasons, there was a lower supply of sediment from the hillslopes, resulting in a time-invariant set of sediment rating parameters. A sediment mass-balance model corroborated the physical interpretations. The temporal variability in the sediment rating parameters demonstrates the importance of storm-based sampling in areas with intense monsoon activity to characterize post-fire sediment transport accurately. In particular, recovery of rating parameters depends on the number of high-intensity rainstorms. These findings can be used to constrain rapid assessment fire-response models for planning mitigation activities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Variation in vegetative water use in the savannas of the North Australian Tropical Transect

JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 3 2002
Garry D. Cook
Abstract. The decline in tree density on sandy soils in savannas is highly correlated with declining mean annual rainfall along the North Australian Tropical Transect (NATT). We reanalyse various data on water use by individual trees and argue that a common relationship can be used to estimate annual water use by tree stands along the NATT from ca. 600 mm mean annual rainfall to at least 1600 mm. Where rainfall is less than 600 mm, trees of a given size use less water than at sites where rainfall is higher. We use these relationships to relate water use at the stand scale with mean annual rainfall along the NATT. From this we show that the empirical data imply that the minimum depth of sandy soil that needs to be exploited by trees declines with increasing aridity along the NATT from more than 5 m to less than 1 m. This finding is consistent with other observations and the pattern that with increasing aridity, an increasing proportion of rainfall coming from isolated storms rather than from periods of extended monsoon activity. [source]

Genetic structure of Anogeissus dhofarica (Combretaceae) populations endemic to the monsoonal fog oases of the southern Arabian Peninsula

BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 1 2009
CHRISTOPH OBERPRIELER
Anogeissus dhofarica (Combretaceae) is an endemic tree of the monsoon affected coastal mountains of the southern Arabian Peninsula, being the character species of the Hybantho durae,Anogeissetum dhofaricae association, a drought deciduous, monsoon forest community found only in the Dhofar region of southern Oman and the eastern Al-Mahra region of south-east Yemen. Due to the steep precipitation gradient from the centre to the edges in this monsoon affected area, A. dhofarica is found in two different habitat types: in continuous woodland belts of the Hawf and Dhofar mountains, and in isolated, scattered woodland patches, as found especially in the Fartak Mts (south-east Yemen). Fifteen populations (212 individuals) from across the whole distribution area of the species were analysed using amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting to: (1) evaluate the consequences of population fragmentation on the genetic diversity harboured in isolated patches versus cohering stands of the species and (2) to reconstruct the phylogeographical pattern of A. dhofarica as a consequence of oscillations in the monsoon activity during the Pleistocene and Holocene. The analysis of among-population genetic differentiation and within-population genetic diversity in A. dhofarica populations resulted in a lack of genetic pauperization and genetic differentiation of populations of the distinctly isolated patches of the Fartak Mts compared to the more luxurious forests of the Hawf and Dhofar regions. This is considered to be due to the high buffer capacity against the loss of genetic diversity caused by the long-lived life-form of the species combined with the capability to propagate clonally and the relatively recent fragmentation of Anogeissus forests into the described patches rather than due to high values of gene flow among remnant populations caused by bee pollination and anemochorical and hydrochorical diaspore dispersal. The phylogeographical pattern of the species argues for a quite recent fragmentation of a once continuous forest belt of A. dhofarica that is rather connected with climate changes in the Holocene than triggered by aridity,humidity oscillations reported for the Pleistocene. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 97, 40,51. [source]