Freshwater exchanges and surface salinity in the Colombian basin, Caribbean Sea

Emilio Beier (2017, [Artículo])

Despite the heavy regional rainfall and considerable discharge of many rivers into the Colombian Basin, there have been few detailed studies about the dilution of Caribbean Surface Water and the variability of salinity in the southwestern Caribbean. An analysis of the precipitation, evaporation and runoff in relation to the climate variability demonstrates that although the salt balance in the Colombian Basin overall is in equilibrium, the area south of 12N is an important dilution sub-basin. In the southwest of the basin, in the region of the Panama-Colombia Gyre, Caribbean Sea Water is diluted by precipitation and runoff year round, while in the northeast, off La Guajira, its salinity increases from December to May by upwelling. At the interannual scale, continental runoff is related to El Niño Southern Oscillation, and precipitation and evaporation south of 12°N are related to the Caribbean Low Level Jet. During El Niño years the maximum salinification occurs in the dry season (December-February) while in La Niña years the maximum dilution (or freshening), reaching La Guajira Coastal Zone, occurs in the wet season (September-November). © 2017 Beier et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

sea water, fresh water, Article, Caribbean, dilution, dry season, El Nino, environmental parameters, evaporation, freshwater exchange, geographic distribution, molecular weight, oscillation, precipitation, river basin, salinity, seasonal variation, s CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA

Dipole-wind interactions under gap wind jet conditions in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico: A surface drifter and satellite database analysis

MAURO WILFRIDO SANTIAGO GARCIA (2019, [Artículo])

Gap wind jets (Tehuano winds) trigger supersquirts of colder water and mesoscale asymmetric dipoles in the Gulf of Tehuantepec (GT). However, the effects of successive gap wind jets on dipoles and their effects inside eddies have not yet been studied. Based on the wind fields, geostrophic currents, and surface drifter dispersion, this research documented three dipoles triggered and modified by Tehuano winds. Once a dipole develops, successive gap wind jets strengthen the vortices, and the anticyclonic eddy migrates southwestward while the cyclonic eddy is maintained on the east side of the GT. During the wind relaxation stage, the cyclonic eddy may propagate westward, but due to the subsequent re-intensification of the Tehuano winds, the vortex could break down, as was suggested by surface drifter dispersion pattern and geostrophic field data. The effect of the Tehuano winds was evaluating via eddy-Ekman pumping. Under Tehuano wind conditions, Ekman downwelling (upwelling) inside the anticyclonic (cyclonic) eddies may reach ~ -2.0 (0.5) m d-1 and decrease as the wind weakens. In the absence of Tehuano winds, Ekman downwelling inside the anticyclonic eddy was ~ 0.1 (-0.1) m d-1. The asymmetry of downwelling and upwelling inside eddies during Tehuano wind events may be associated with Tehuano wind forcing. © 2019 Santiago-García et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

article, dipole, leisure, Mexico, cold, ecosystem, factual database, geographic mapping, hurricane, Mexico, satellite imagery, season, water flow, wind, sea water, Cold Temperature, Cyclonic Storms, Databases, Factual, Ecosystem, Geographic Mapping, CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA

Variaciones en un transecto profundo frente a la costa de Nayarit, México

Emilio Palacios Hernández Luis Brito Castillo LAURA ELENA CARRILLO BIBRIEZCA CARLOS EDUARDO CABRERA RAMOS JORGE MANUEL MONTES ARECHIGA (2022, [Artículo])

"Six oceanographic cruises in a NE-SW transect were made nearshore of southern Sinaloa and Nayarit from March 2006 through May 2008, where no in situ hydrographic data are available. Applying the Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater 2010 (TEOS-10) to the observations, the hydrography and geostrophic currents of the region were characterized. Results indicate that surface variability (0-50 m) emerged mainly from seasonal atmospheric forcing. A relative salinity maximum was present during all cruises below this surface layer, which is attributed to a water mass intrusion of Subtropical Subsurface Water that could be associated with the Mexican Coastal Current. Another water mass intrusion is from the California Current. Samples from the 2007-2008 La Niña produced an uncommon circulation, where water flowing from the Gulf of California along the coast of Sinaloa was observed, opposite to what is commonly known as a mean circulation. This uncommon circulation matches the generation of anticyclonic eddies around the Islas Marias archipelago."

Gulf of California, Mexican Coastal Current, Nayarit Coast, seasonal variation, La Niña CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA DESCRIPTIVA OCEANOGRAFÍA DESCRIPTIVA

Waterhole detection using a vegetation index in desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis cremnobates) habitat

Jonathan Gabriel Escobar Flores (2019, [Artículo])

In arid ecosystems, desert bighorn sheep are dependent on natural waterholes, particularly in summer when forage is scarce and environmental temperatures are high. To detect waterholes in Sierra Santa Isabel, which is the largest area of desert bighorn sheep habitat in the state of Baja California, Mexico, we used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI) from Sentinel-2 satellite images. Waterhole detection was based on the premise that sites with greater water availability, where NDVI was higher, can be identified by their density of vegetation greenness. For the detected waterholes, we estimated the escape terrain (presence of cliffs or steep, rocky slopes) around each by the vector ruggedness measure to determine their potential use by desert bighorn sheep based on the animals’ presence as documented by camera traps. We detected 14 waterholes with the NDVI of which 11 were known by land owners and 3 were unrecorded. Desert bighorn were not detected in waterholes with high values of escape terrain, i.e., flat areas. Waterhole detection by NDVI is a simple method, and with the assistance and knowledge of the inhabitants of the Sierra, it was possible to confirm the presence each waterhole in the field. © 2019 Escobar-Flores et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Article, bighorn sheep, environmental aspects and related phenomena, environmental parameters, habitat, Mexico, nonhuman, normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference water index, water availability, waterhole, animal, bighorn sheep, CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CIENCIAS AGRARIAS CIENCIA FORESTAL CIENCIA FORESTAL

Does access to improved grain storage technology increase farmers' welfare? Experimental evidence from maize farming in Ethiopia

Hugo De Groote Bart Minten (2024, [Artículo])

Seasonal price variability for cereals is two to three times higher in Africa than on the international reference market. Seasonality is even more pronounced when access to appropriate storage and opportunities for price arbitrage are limited. As smallholder farmers typically sell their production after harvest, when prices are low, this leads to lower incomes as well as higher food insecurity during the lean season, when prices are high. One solution to reduce seasonal stress is the use of improved storage technologies. Using data from a randomised controlled trial, in a major maize-growing region of Western Ethiopia, we study the impact of hermetic bags, a technology that protects stored grain against insect pests, so that the grain can be stored longer. Despite considerable price seasonality—maize prices in the lean season are 36% higher than after harvesting—we find no evidence that hermetic bags improve welfare, except that access to these bags allowed for a marginally longer storage period of maize intended for sale by 2 weeks. But this did not translate into measurable welfare gains as we found no changes in any of our welfare outcome indicators. This ‘near-null’ effect is due to the fact that maize storage losses in our study region are relatively lower than previous studies suggested—around 10% of the quantity stored—likely because of the widespread use of an alternative to protect maize during storage, for example a cheap but highly toxic fumigant. These findings are important for policies that seek to promote improved storage technologies in these settings.

Hermetic Storage Randomised Controlled Trial CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA STORAGE PILOT FARMS SEASONALITY WELFARE MAIZE

Calibrated multi-model ensemble seasonal prediction of Bangladesh summer monsoon rainfall

Nachiketa Acharya Carlo Montes Timothy Joseph Krupnik (2023, [Artículo])

Bangladesh summer monsoon rainfall (BSMR), typically from June through September (JJAS), represents the main source of water for multiple sectors. However, its high spatial and interannual variability makes the seasonal prediction of BSMR crucial for building resilience to natural disasters and for food security in a climate-risk-prone country. This study describes the development and implementation of an objective system for the seasonal forecasting of BSMR, recently adopted by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). The approach is based on the use of a calibrated multi-model ensemble (CMME) of seven state-of-the-art general circulation models (GCMs) from the North American Multi-Model Ensemble project. The lead-1 (initial conditions of May for forecasting JJAS total rainfall) hindcasts (spanning 1982–2010) and forecasts (spanning 2011–2018) of seasonal total rainfall for the JJAS season from these seven GCMs were used. A canonical correlation analysis (CCA) regression is used to calibrate the raw GCMs outputs against observations, which are then combined with equal weight to generate final CMME predictions. Results show, compared to individual calibrated GCMs and uncalibrated MME, that the CCA-based calibration generates significant improvements over individual raw GCM in terms of the magnitude of systematic errors, Spearman's correlation coefficients, and generalised discrimination scores over most of Bangladesh areas, especially in the northern part of the country. Since October 2019, the BMD has been issuing real-time seasonal rainfall forecasts using this new forecast system.

Multi-Model Ensemble Seasonal Forecasting CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CLIMATE SERVICES FORECASTING MONSOONS

Biodiversity conservation in an anthropized landscape: Trees, not patch size drive, bird community composition in a low-input agroecosystem

ERIC MELLINK BIJTEL (2017, [Artículo])

One of the most typical agro-ecosystems in the Llanos de Ojuelos, a semi-arid region of central Mexico, is that of fruit-production orchards of nopales (prickly pear cacti). This perennial habitat with complex vertical structure provides refuge and food for at least 112 species of birds throughout the year. Nopal orchards vary in their internal structure, size and shrub/ tree composition, yet these factors have unknown effects on the animals that use them. To further understand the conservation potential of this agro-ecosystem, we evaluated the effects of patch-size and the presence of trees on bird community composition, as well as several habitat variables, through an information-theoretical modelling approach. Community composition was obtained through a year of census transects in 12 orchards. The presence of trees in the orchards was the major driver of bird communities followed by seasonality; bird communities are independent of patch size, except for small orchard patches that benefit black-chin sparrows, which are considered a sensitive species. At least 55 species of six trophic guilds (insectivores, granivores, carnivores, nectivores, omnivores, and frugivores) used the orchards. Orchards provide adequate habitat and food resources for several sensitive species of resident and migratory sparrows. The attributes that make orchards important for birds: trees, shrubs, herb seeds, and open patches can be managed to maintain native biodiversity in highly anthropized regions with an urgent need to find convergence between production and biological conservation. © 2017 Mellink et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

agroecosystem, carnivore, chin, conservation biology, driver, frugivore, granivore, habitat, human, insectivore, landscape, nonhuman, omnivore, orchard, resident, seasonal variation, shrub, sparrow, theoretical model, agriculture, animal, biodiversit CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA

Expanding the WOFOST crop model to explore options for sustainable nitrogen management: A study for winter wheat in the Netherlands

João Vasco Silva Pytrik Reidsma (2024, [Artículo])

Nitrogen (N) management is essential to ensure crop growth and to balance production, economic, and environmental objectives from farm to regional levels. This study aimed to extend the WOFOST crop model with N limited production and use the model to explore options for sustainable N management for winter wheat in the Netherlands. The extensions consisted of the simulation of crop and soil N processes, stress responses to N deficiencies, and the maximum gross CO2 assimilation rate being computed from the leaf N concentration. A new soil N module, abbreviated as SNOMIN (Soil Nitrogen for Organic and Mineral Nitrogen module) was developed. The model was calibrated and evaluated against field data. The model reproduced the measured grain dry matter in all treatments in both the calibration and evaluation data sets with a RMSE of 1.2 Mg ha−1 and the measured aboveground N uptake with a RMSE of 39 kg N ha−1. Subsequently, the model was applied in a scenario analysis exploring different pathways for sustainable N use on farmers' wheat fields in the Netherlands. Farmers' reported yield and N fertilization management practices were obtained for 141 fields in Flevoland between 2015 and 2017, representing the baseline. Actual N input and N output (amount of N in grains at harvest) were estimated for each field from these data. Water and N-limited yields and N outputs were simulated for these fields to estimate the maximum attainable yield and N output under the reported N management. The investigated scenarios included (1) closing efficiency yield gaps, (2) adjusting N input to the minimum level possible without incurring yield losses, and (3) achieving 90% of the simulated water-limited yield. Scenarios 2 and 3 were devised to allow for soil N mining (2a and 3a) and to not allow for soil N mining (2b and 3b). The results of the scenario analysis show that the largest N surplus reductions without soil N mining, relative to the baseline, can be obtained in scenario 1, with an average of 75%. Accepting negative N surpluses (while maintaining yield) would allow maximum N input reductions of 84 kg N ha−1 (39%) on average (scenario 2a). However, the adjustment in N input for these pathways, and the resulting N surplus, varied strongly across fields, with some fields requiring greater N input than used by farmers.

Crop Growth Models WOFOST CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CROPS NITROGEN-USE EFFICIENCY WINTER WHEAT SOIL WATER

Transpiration of a tropical dry deciduous forest in Yucatan, Mexico

EVELYN RAQUEL SALAS ACOSTA José Luis Andrade Torres Jorge Perera ROBERTH ARMANDO US SANTAMARIA bernardo figueroa-espinoza Jorge M. Uuh-Sonda EDUARDO CEJUDO ESPINOSA (2022, [Artículo])

The study of forest hydrology and its relationships with climate requires accurate estimates of water inputs, outputs, and changes in reservoirs. Evapotranspiration is frequently the least studied component when addressing the water cycle; thus, it is important to obtain direct measurements of evaporation and transpiration. This study measured transpiration in a tropical dry deciduous forest in Yucatán (Mexico) using the thermal dissipation method (Granier-type sensors) in representative species of this vegetation type. We estimated stand transpiration and its relationship with allometry, diameter-at-breast-height categories, and previously published equations. We found that transpiration changes over time, being higher in the rainy season. Estimated daily transpiration ranged from 0.562 to 0.690 kg m–2 d–1 in the late dry season (April–May) and from 0.686 to 1.29 kg m–2 d–1 in the late rainy season (September–October), accounting for up to 51% of total evapotranspiration in the rainy season. These daily estimates are consistent with previous reports for tropical dry forests and other vegetation types. We found that transpiration was not species-specific; diameter at breast height (DBH) was a reliable way of estimating transpiration because water use was directly related to allometry. Direct measurement of transpiration would increase our ability to accurately estimate water availability and assess the responses of vegetation to climate change. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

SAP FLUX SEASONALITY STAND TRANSPIRATION EVAPOTRANSPIRATION DRY DECIDUOUS FOREST BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA BIOLOGÍA VEGETAL (BOTÁNICA) ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL

Phenotypic assessment of genetic gain from selection for improved drought tolerance in semi-tropical maize populations

Terence Molnar Somak Dutta Thanda Dhliwayo Samuel Trachsel Michael Lee (2023, [Artículo])

Drought Tolerant Population Topcross Water Deficit CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA DROUGHT TOLERANCE WATER MAIZE CLIMATE CHANGE GENETIC GAIN