Drought

As Californian counties begin to issue water shortages for 2021 and lakes and rivers precipitously fall in their water levels, the threats posed to communities by drought are again becoming clear.

In the case of rangelands, or open country that is grazed by livestock and which accounts for over 6 million acres of the Golden State, droughts coupled with drier and more variable rainfalls are expected to present significant impacts and challenges, especially for ranchers.

Brassica plants, such as broccoli, produce metabolites that benefit humans (flavor, anti-cancer defenses), benefit the plant (attacking insects) and, in new research, defend against drought. Dan Kliebenstein’s lab examines drought tolerance in Arabidopsis.

An article in California Agriculture addresses how critical research is underway to understand the consequences of the massive wave of tree mortality in the Sierra Nevada. Urgent dialogue has started among UC scientists, forest managers, and public agencies to manage the consequences of the unprecedented tree die-off and increase the resiliency of forests to future droughts.

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