The evolution of climatic drought studies in Spain over the last few decades

Abstract

This study reviews the evolution of scientific research on climatic droughts in Spain over the last few decades. The complexity of this natural hazard and the wide incidence of droughts in Spain have led to great interest from scientists in Spain, and generated a significant amount of scientific work on the topic over the last two decades. Climatic drought studies have evolved from predominantly descriptive studies up to the 1990s to highly diverse research topics, which include the development of indices, tools and datasets, the study of drought hazard probability, the analysis of drought variability and trends, including research on long term drought reconstructions and analysis with instrumental data, an assessment of drought mechanisms and drivers, and drought modeling, including how models represent droughts, and applying models to drought forecasting and future projections. The study of climatic droughts in Spain is highly internationalized, since most of the current scientific studies are published in high-impact international journals and, nowadays, do not only cover Spain, but also other world regions as well as continental and global studies.

Investigating the response of leaf area index to droughts in southern African vegetation using observations and model simulations

“…In addition, it is acknowledged to be a primary component in the depletion of vegetation productiveness and the reduction in biomass (Vicente-Serrano et al, 2010). Previous studies (Vicente-Serrano et al, 2006;Vicente-Serrano, 2013) have also used meteorological drought in the investigation of drought impacts on biomass and vegetation productiveness.…”

“…Therefore, the quantified values of the index give the state of drought in a space. Our definition and approaches follow numerous previous studies (Vicente-Serrano, 2013Vicente-Serrano, 2013Khosravi et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2013;Hao and AghaKouchak, 2013). A time series of the evolution of drought for the 30year period was plotted.…”

“…9 months). The types of vegetation inhabiting these regions, which are well adapted to water shortages because of their physiological and morphological characteristics, take a prolonged period to respond to drought and, thus, do not easily shows symptoms of water strain (Vicente-Serrano, 2013). The activities through which the vegetation minimize water loss include a reduction in photosynthesis and reduced canopy cover (Schwinning et al, 2005).…”

A millennium-long perspective on recent groundwater changes in the Iberian Peninsula

“…The vulnerability of much of the Iberian Peninsula to drought 12 , and increasing evapotranspiration and changing precipitation patterns due to climate change 13 affect its water resources, demanding a deeper understanding of climate-groundwater impacts 14,15 . Recognising the complexity of drought dynamics 16 , this study offers a unified perspective.…”