Articles | Volume 21, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-879-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-879-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
09 Mar 2021
Research article |
| 09 Mar 2021
| 09 Mar 2021
The impact of drought on soil moisture trends across Brazilian biomes
Flavio Lopes Ribeiro
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Disaster Research Center, School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
present address: University of California, Riverside, Department of Environmental Sciences, 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521, USA
present address: U.S. Salinity Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 450 West Big Springs Rd., Riverside, CA 92507, USA
Alma Vázquez-Lule
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
Ana Paula Cunha
National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
Marcelo Zeri
National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
Rodrigo Vargas
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
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Joseph W. Gallear, Marcelo Valadares Galdos, Marcelo Zeri, and Andrew Hartley
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 1521–1541, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-1521-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-1521-2025, 2025
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In Brazil, drought is of national concern and can have major consequences for agriculture. Here, we determine how to develop forecasts for drought stress on vegetation health using machine learning. Results aim to inform future developments in operational drought monitoring at the National Centre for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN) in Brazil. This information is essential for disaster preparedness and planning of future actions to support areas affected by drought.
Pilar Durante, Juan Miguel Requena-Mullor, Rodrigo Vargas, Mario Guevara, Domingo Alcaraz-Segura, and Cecilio Oyonarte
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-431, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-431, 2024
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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Human activities have disrupted the global carbon cycle, increasing CO2 levels. Soils are the largest carbon stores on land, making it essential to understand how much carbon they hold to fight climate change. Our study improved estimates of soil carbon in peninsular Spain by integrating historical soil data and using machine-learning methods to create detailed maps of carbon content. These maps will help manage soil carbon better and support efforts to track carbon emissions globally.
Josué Delgado-Balbuena, Henry W. Loescher, Carlos A. Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Teresa Alfaro-Reyna, Luis F. Pineda-Martínez, Rodrigo Vargas, and Tulio Arredondo
Biogeosciences, 20, 2369–2385, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2369-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2369-2023, 2023
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In the semiarid grassland, an increase in soil moisture at shallow depths instantly enhances carbon release through respiration. In contrast, deeper soil water controls plant carbon uptake but with a delay of several days. Previous soil conditions, biological activity, and the size and timing of precipitation are factors that determine the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. Thus, future changes in precipitation patterns could convert ecosystems from carbon sinks to carbon sources.
Enner Alcântara, José A. Marengo, José Mantovani, Luciana R. Londe, Rachel Lau Yu San, Edward Park, Yunung Nina Lin, Jingyu Wang, Tatiana Mendes, Ana Paula Cunha, Luana Pampuch, Marcelo Seluchi, Silvio Simões, Luz Adriana Cuartas, Demerval Goncalves, Klécia Massi, Regina Alvalá, Osvaldo Moraes, Carlos Souza Filho, Rodolfo Mendes, and Carlos Nobre
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1157–1175, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1157-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1157-2023, 2023
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The municipality of Petrópolis (approximately 305 687 inhabitants) is nestled in the mountains 68 km outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. On 15 February 2022, the city of Petrópolis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, received an unusually high volume of rain within 3 h (258 mm). This resulted in flash floods and subsequent landslides that caused 231 fatalities, the deadliest landslide disaster recorded in Petrópolis. This work shows how the disaster was triggered.
Daphne Armas, Mario Guevara, Fernando Bezares, Rodrigo Vargas, Pilar Durante, Víctor Osorio, Wilmer Jiménez, and Cecilio Oyonarte
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 431–445, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-431-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-431-2023, 2023
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The global need for updated soil datasets has increased. Our main objective was to synthesize and harmonize soil profile information collected by two different projects in Ecuador between 2009 and 2015.The main result was the development of the Harmonized Soil Database of Ecuador (HESD) that includes information from 13 542 soil profiles with over 51 713 measured soil horizons, including 92 different edaphic variables, and follows international standards for archiving and sharing soil data.
Rodrigo Vargas and Van Huong Le
Biogeosciences, 20, 15–26, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-15-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-15-2023, 2023
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Quantifying the role of soils in nature-based solutions requires accurate estimates of soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes. We suggest that multiple GHG fluxes should not be simultaneously measured at a few fixed time intervals, but an optimized sampling approach can reduce bias and uncertainty. Our results have implications for assessing GHG fluxes from soils and a better understanding of the role of soils in nature-based solutions.
Margaret Capooci and Rodrigo Vargas
Biogeosciences, 19, 4655–4670, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4655-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4655-2022, 2022
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Tidal salt marsh soil emits greenhouse gases, as well as sulfur-based gases, which play roles in global climate but are not well studied as they are difficult to measure. Traditional methods of measuring these gases worked relatively well for carbon dioxide, but less so for methane, nitrous oxide, carbon disulfide, and dimethylsulfide. High variability of trace gases complicates the ability to accurately calculate gas budgets and new approaches are needed for monitoring protocols.
Kyle B. Delwiche, Sara Helen Knox, Avni Malhotra, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Gavin McNicol, Sarah Feron, Zutao Ouyang, Dario Papale, Carlo Trotta, Eleonora Canfora, You-Wei Cheah, Danielle Christianson, Ma. Carmelita R. Alberto, Pavel Alekseychik, Mika Aurela, Dennis Baldocchi, Sheel Bansal, David P. Billesbach, Gil Bohrer, Rosvel Bracho, Nina Buchmann, David I. Campbell, Gerardo Celis, Jiquan Chen, Weinan Chen, Housen Chu, Higo J. Dalmagro, Sigrid Dengel, Ankur R. Desai, Matteo Detto, Han Dolman, Elke Eichelmann, Eugenie Euskirchen, Daniela Famulari, Kathrin Fuchs, Mathias Goeckede, Sébastien Gogo, Mangaliso J. Gondwe, Jordan P. Goodrich, Pia Gottschalk, Scott L. Graham, Martin Heimann, Manuel Helbig, Carole Helfter, Kyle S. Hemes, Takashi Hirano, David Hollinger, Lukas Hörtnagl, Hiroki Iwata, Adrien Jacotot, Gerald Jurasinski, Minseok Kang, Kuno Kasak, John King, Janina Klatt, Franziska Koebsch, Ken W. Krauss, Derrick Y. F. Lai, Annalea Lohila, Ivan Mammarella, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Giovanni Manca, Jaclyn Hatala Matthes, Trofim Maximov, Lutz Merbold, Bhaskar Mitra, Timothy H. Morin, Eiko Nemitz, Mats B. Nilsson, Shuli Niu, Walter C. Oechel, Patricia Y. Oikawa, Keisuke Ono, Matthias Peichl, Olli Peltola, Michele L. Reba, Andrew D. Richardson, William Riley, Benjamin R. K. Runkle, Youngryel Ryu, Torsten Sachs, Ayaka Sakabe, Camilo Rey Sanchez, Edward A. Schuur, Karina V. R. Schäfer, Oliver Sonnentag, Jed P. Sparks, Ellen Stuart-Haëntjens, Cove Sturtevant, Ryan C. Sullivan, Daphne J. Szutu, Jonathan E. Thom, Margaret S. Torn, Eeva-Stiina Tuittila, Jessica Turner, Masahito Ueyama, Alex C. Valach, Rodrigo Vargas, Andrej Varlagin, Alma Vazquez-Lule, Joseph G. Verfaillie, Timo Vesala, George L. Vourlitis, Eric J. Ward, Christian Wille, Georg Wohlfahrt, Guan Xhuan Wong, Zhen Zhang, Donatella Zona, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Benjamin Poulter, and Robert B. Jackson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3607–3689, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3607-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3607-2021, 2021
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Methane is an important greenhouse gas, yet we lack knowledge about its global emissions and drivers. We present FLUXNET-CH4, a new global collection of methane measurements and a critical resource for the research community. We use FLUXNET-CH4 data to quantify the seasonality of methane emissions from freshwater wetlands, finding that methane seasonality varies strongly with latitude. Our new database and analysis will improve wetland model accuracy and inform greenhouse gas budgets.
Mario Guevara, Michela Taufer, and Rodrigo Vargas
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1711–1735, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1711-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1711-2021, 2021
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Soil moisture is key for understanding soil–plant–atmosphere interactions. We provide a machine learning approach to increase the spatial resolution of satellite-derived soil moisture information. The outcome is a dataset of gap-free global mean annual soil moisture predictions and associated uncertainty for 28 years (1991–2018) across 15 km grids. This dataset has higher agreement with in situ soil moisture and precipitation measurements. Results show a decline of global annual soil moisture.
Jinshi Jian, Rodrigo Vargas, Kristina Anderson-Teixeira, Emma Stell, Valentine Herrmann, Mercedes Horn, Nazar Kholod, Jason Manzon, Rebecca Marchesi, Darlin Paredes, and Ben Bond-Lamberty
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 255–267, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-255-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-255-2021, 2021
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Field soil-to-atmosphere CO2 flux (soil respiration, Rs) observations were compiled into a global database (SRDB) a decade ago. Here, we restructured and updated the database to the fifth version, SRDB-V5, with data published through 2017 included. SRDB-V5 aims to be a data framework for the scientific community to share seasonal to annual field Rs measurements, and it provides opportunities for the scientific community to better understand the spatial and temporal variability of Rs.
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Short summary
The main objective of this paper was to analyze differences in soil moisture responses to drought for each biome of Brazil. For that we used satellite data from the European Space Agency from 2009 to 2015. We found an overall soil moisture decline of −0.5 % yr−1 at the country level and identified the most vulnerable biomes of Brazil. This information is crucial to enhance the national drought early warning system and develop strategies for drought risk reduction and soil moisture conservation.
The main objective of this paper was to analyze differences in soil moisture responses to...
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