Long-Term Trends in Root-Zone Soil Moisture across CONUS Connected to ENSO

Tobin, Kenneth J.; Torres, Roberto Carlos Sánchez; Bennett, Marvin E.; Dong, Jianzhi; Crow, Wade T.

doi:10.3390/rs12122037

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Wavelet coherence is a bi-variate framework that is useful for exploring interactions between time series within a continuous time and frequency space [ 25 ]. Prior studies that have used WTC to document teleconnections between ENSO and soil moisture include [ 26 , 27 ], which also provide more information about this methodology. WTC was applied on a county basis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A r 2 value of 0.5 was set as the minimum value at which phase relationships can be discerned with confidence [ 28 ]. A 12-month lag was applied between the ENSO and soil moisture consistent with the fact that hydrologic response can lag up to 12 months behind atmospheric forcing [ 27 , 29 ]. An additional 12 months (total 24 months) of lag was applied between ENSO and coccidioidomycosis cases, which has been noted in prior studies [ 7 , 11 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), Soil Moisture, and El Nino Southern Oscillation in California and Arizona

Tobin

Pokharel

Bennett

2022

IJERPH

Self Cite

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The soil-borne fungal disease coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever) is prevalent across the southwestern United States (US). Previous studies have suggested that the occurrence of this infection is associated with anomalously wet or dry soil moisture states described by the “grow and blow” hypothesis. The growth of coccidioidomycosis is favored by moist conditions both at the surface and in the root zone. A statistical analysis identified two areas in Arizona and central California, with a moderate-to-high number of coccidioidomycosis cases. A Wavelet Transform Coherence (WTC) analysis between El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), coccidioidomycosis cases, surface soil moisture (SSM; 0 to 5 cm) from European Space Agency-Climate Change Initiative (ESA-CCI), and shallow root zone soil moisture (RZSM; 0 to 40 cm depth) from Soil MERGE (SMERGE) was executed for twenty-four CA and AZ counties. In AZ, only SSM was modulated by ENSO. When case values were adjusted for overreporting between 2009 to 2012, a moderate but significant connection between ENSO and cases was observed at a short periodicity (2.1 years). In central CA, SSM, RZSM, and cases all had a significant link to ENSO at longer periodicities (5-to-7 years). This study provides an example of how oceanic-atmospheric teleconnections can impact human health.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), Soil Moisture, and El Nino Southern Oscillation in California and Arizona

Tobin

Pokharel

Bennett

2022

IJERPH

Self Cite

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“…We use the flash drought of 2012 to compare model results to multiple ground and remotely sensed observations. Modeled soil moisture (SM) fluxes are compared to SoilMERGE (SMERGE), a 0.125 degree root-zone (0-40 cm) SM product obtained from 'merging' NLDAS-2 outputs with European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative surface satellite data which can predict vegetation health anomalies (Tobin et al, 2019). We also validate SM estimates against simulated SM from Noah land-…”

Section: Validation Data Setsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling phenological responses to extreme drought and implications for water and carbon budgets

Corak,

Otkin,

Ford

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. In recent years, extreme drought events in the United States have seen increases in frequency and severity underlining a need to improve our understanding of vegetation resilience and adaptation. Flash droughts are extreme events marked by rapid dry down of soils due to lack of precipitation, high temperatures, and dry air. These events are also associated with reduced preparation, response, and management time windows before and during drought which exacerbate their detrimental impacts on people and food systems. Improvements in actionable information for flash drought management are informed by atmospheric and land surface processes, including responses and feedbacks from vegetation. Phenologic state, or growth stage, is an important metric for modeling how vegetation interacts with the atmosphere. We investigate how uncertainty in vegetation phenology propagates through vegetation responses during drought and non-drought periods by coupling a land-surface hydrology model to a predictive phenology model. We identify plant processes that influence vegetation responses to drought and assess the role of vegetation in the partitioning of carbon, water, and energy fluxes. We selected study sites in Kansas, USA where extreme drought events have been observed, in particular the flash drought of 2012, and where AmeriFlux eddy covariance towers provide data which can be used to evaluate water movement between the land (surface and subsurface) and the atmosphere. We evaluate the evolution of plant phenology, water use, and productivity using different water stress events. Results show that phenological responses using model parameters generated from periods of average precipitation show slower responses to drought as compared to parameters generated to reflect isohydric or anisohydric tendencies. Evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity (GPP) show similarly timed responses to water stress. We find plants alter water use strategies under extreme drought, with plants nearly halting atmospheric water and carbon exchanges when under stress. Decreases in uncertainty from ensemble estimates of GPP and ET during the flash drought period reduce to winter levels implying variability in plant life stage and functionality during drought periods are similar to those of dormant months. These results have implications for improving predictions of drought impacts on vegetation.

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Oil and gas development influences potential for dust emission from the Upper Colorado River Basin, USA

Tyree,

Chappell,

Villarreal

et al. 2024

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Wind erosion and dust emission from drylands have large consequences for ecosystem function and human health. Wind erosion is naturally reduced by soil crusting and sheltering by non‐erodible roughness elements such as plants. Land uses that reduce surface roughness and disturb the soil surface can dramatically increase dust emission. Extraction of oil and gas is a common and growing land use in the western United States (US) that removes vegetation and other roughness elements for construction of well pads and unpaved access roads, resulting in thousands of small (1–4 ha), discrete patches of unprotected soil. Here, we use a satellite albedo‐based model to assess the effect of oil/gas activity on surface roughness in the Uinta‐Piceance Basin, an area of the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) with dense oil and natural gas development and modelled how the change in surface roughness could impact aeolian sediment flux and dust emission. We also investigated how regional drought influences the response of surface roughness to well pads and access roads. Oil/gas activity reduced surface roughness and increased modelled aeolian sediment flux at the landscape scale across much of the study region, resulting in a modest increase of 10 139 kg of dust per year, which is small relative to dust loads from a single regional dust event observed in the region, but downwind impact could be significant. The magnitude of surface roughness reductions by oil/gas activity was generally consistent among land cover types. However, in parts of the basin that had high cover of annual forbs and grasses, oil/gas activity was associated with larger surface roughness and smaller potential dust emission. Drought decreased surface roughness across disturbed and undisturbed sites, but there was no interactive effect of oil/gas activity and drought on surface roughness. These results suggest that oil/gas activity may increase sediment fluxes and likely contributes to dust emission from landscapes in the UCRB. Understanding how drought and land use change contribute to dust emissions will benefit mitigation of undesirable impacts of wind erosion and dust transport.

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Long-Term Trends in Root-Zone Soil Moisture across CONUS Connected to ENSO

Cited by 6 publications

References 56 publications

Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), Soil Moisture, and El Nino Southern Oscillation in California and Arizona

Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), Soil Moisture, and El Nino Southern Oscillation in California and Arizona

Unraveling phenological responses to extreme drought and implications for water and carbon budgets

Oil and gas development influences potential for dust emission from the Upper Colorado River Basin, USA

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