Consistency of agricultural drought characterization over Upper Greater Horn of Africa (1982-2013): Topographical, gauge density, and model forcing influence.

The negative impact of Upper Greater Horn of Africa's (UGHA) complex topography on drought characterization exacerbated by gauge density and model forcing parameters has not been investigated. In order to fill this gap, this study employs a combination of remotely sensed, in situ, and model products (1982-2013); precipitation (CHIRPS, GPCC, and CHIRP), soil moisture (ERA-Interim, MERRA-2, CPC, GLDAS, and FLDAS), vegetation condition index (VCI), and total water storage products (GRACE and MERRA-2) to (i) characterize drought, (ii) explore the inconsistencies in areas under drought due to topographical variations, gauge density, and model forcing parameters, and (iii), assess the effectiveness of various drought indicators over Ethiopia (a selected UGHA region with unique topographical variation). A 3-month time scale that sufficiently captures agricultural drought is employed to provide an indirect link to food security situation in this rain-dependent region. The spatio-temporal drought patterns across all the products are found to be dependent on topography of the region, at the same time, the inconsistencies in characterizing drought is found to be mainly driven by topographical variability (directly) and gauge density (inversely) for precipitation products while for soil moisture products, precipitation forcing parameters plays a major role. In addition, the inconsistencies are found to be higher under extreme and moderate droughts than severe droughts. The mean differences in the percentage of areas under drought and different drought intensities over the region are on average 15.87% and 6.16% (from precipitation products) and 12.65% and 5.20% (from soil moisture products), respectively. On the effectiveness of various indicators, for the duration under study, the following were found to be most suitable over Ethiopia; VCI, GPCC, ERA, CPC, and FLDAS. These results are critical in putting into perspective drought analysis outcomes from various products.

Expression characteristics of CS-ACS1, CS-ACS2 and CS-ACS3, three members of the 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase gene family in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruit under carbon dioxide stress.

We investigated the expression pattern of three 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) synthase genes, CS-ACS1, CS-ACS2 and CS-ACS3 in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruit under CO2 stress. CO2 stress-induced ethylene production paralleled the accumulation of only CS-ACS1 transcripts which disappeared upon withdrawal of CO2. Cycloheximide inhibited the CO2 stress-induced ethylene production but superinduced the accumulation of CS-ACS1 transcript. At higher concentrations, cycloheximide also induced the accumulation of CS-ACS2 and CS-ACS3 transcripts. In the presence of CO2 and cycloheximide, the accumulation of CS-ACS2 transcript occurred within 1 h, disappeared after 3 h and increased greatly upon withdrawal of CO2. Inhibitors of protein kinase and types 1 and 2A protein phosphatases which inhibited and stimulated, respectively, CO2 stress-induced ethylene production had little effect on the expression of these genes. The results presented here identify CS-ACS1 as the main ACC synthase gene responsible for the increased ethylene biosynthesis in cucumber fruit under CO2 stress and suggest that this gene is a primary response gene and its expression is under negative control since it is expressed by treatment with cycloheximide. The results further suggest that the regulation of CO2 stress-induced ethylene biosynthesis by reversible protein phosphorylation does not result from enhanced ACC synthase transcription.