What are the main effects of a drought?
Drought can lead to decreased water quantity and quality, increased incidence of illness or disease, increased mortality rates, and adverse mental health outcomes as livelihoods are challenged. During drought conditions, fuels for wildfire, such as grasses and trees, can dry out and become more flammable. Severe drought conditions can negatively affect air quality. In the way that desertification and land degradation impact climate change through reductions in vegetation cover, desertification can also result in increases in sand and dust aerosols, which can lead to higher exposure to respiratory diseases.The depletion of water availability in soils causes significant declines in crops and livestock productivity. In addition, surface and groundwater supplies may decline during drought, affecting water availability and increasing costs to access water for crop or forage irrigation and watering livestock.Lack of moisture in the soil will cause roots to die which will present a problem for many years to come. The longer the exposure to this drought stress, the weaker the plants and their defense systems are. This may lead to insect and diseases attacks. Damage caused from drought can have long-term effects.Drought is a prolonged dry period in the natural climate cycle that can occur anywhere in the world. It is a slow-onset disaster characterized by the lack of precipitation, resulting in a water shortage. Drought can have a serious impact on health, agriculture, economies, energy and the environment.
What are the three types of effects of drought?
The many different drought impacts are often grouped as “economic,” “environmental,” and “social” impacts. All of these impacts must be considered in planning for and responding to drought conditions. When drought impacts affect the water supply—the water levels in streams, reservoirs, and groundwater—it is known as hydrological drought. Periods of drought can lead to inadequate water supply, threatening the health, safety, and welfare of communities.The first evidence of drought is usually seen in records of rainfall. Within a short period of time, the amount of moisture in soils can begin to decrease. The effects of a drought on flow in streams and reservoirs may not be noticed for several weeks or months.Drought can result in reduced growth rates, increased stress on vegetation, and alterations or transformations to the plant community and/or the entire ecosystem. During periods of drought, plants increase their demand for water through increased evapotranspiration and longer growing seasons.The duration of droughts varies widely. Drought can develop quickly and last only for a matter of weeks, exacerbated by extreme heat and/or wind, but more commonly drought can persist for months or years.
What are the effects of drought on growth?
Increases in the rate of leaves senescence and drooping, scorching and limp leaves, leaf rolling and brittleness, closed flowers and flower sagging, etiolation, wilting, turgidity, premature fall, senescence and yellowing of leaves are among the most ubiquitous symptoms of drought stress in plants [65,66]. Plant problems Generally, the main symptom of drought is the leaves wilt and become limp as they are no longer swollen with water. They nearly always turn yellow; sometimes they turn brown at the edges or drop off. A lack of water can cause stunted growth, flowers to shrivel up and fruit to drop.Drought symptoms can be very confusing and can vary with different types of plants. Woody plants under drought stress can have many symptoms including yellowing, wilting leaves that develop early fall color, and burning or scorching on the edges of leaves. Plants may drop some or all of their leaves and appear dead.Long-term drought escalates the damage caused to plants, ecosystems, and wildlife. In the agricultural sector, sustained drought can result in complete crop and forage failure and livestock sell-offs. Drought conditions can increase wildfire intensity and severity.Droughts are caused by low precipitation over an extended period of time. Atmospheric conditions such as climate change, ocean temperatures, changes in the jet stream, and changes in the local landscape are all factors that contribute to drought.The drought stress can manifest itself in different ways. Most commonly, leaves will lose rigidity, become limp and show different levels of wilting. Lack of water alone will affect photosynthesis, reducing carbohydrate production, thus reducing and somewhat stunting growth.
What are the causes and effects of drought?
A drought is a period of unusually persistent dry weather that continues long enough to cause serious problems such as crop damage and/or water supply shortages. Droughts are caused by low precipitation over an extended period of time. The environmental consequences of drought include losses in plant growth; increases in fire and insect outbreaks; altered rates of carbon, nutrient, and water cycling; and local species extinctions. Drought can impact natural ecosystems and the services they provide to human communities.India has experienced drought conditions at some point in almost all its states. Droughts can be broadly classified into four main types based on their causes – meteorological, hydrological, agricultural and socioeconomic. Meteorological drought is caused by rainfall deficiency over an extended period of time.Drought is caused by a lack of rainfall, causing serious water shortages. It can be fatal. More specifically, drought is defined by a period of unusually dry weather caused by low rainfall and high temperatures.According to estimates, more than 50 million people across over 300 districts in India were impacted by drought in 2019. Successive years of drought, as was seen in parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu between 2016-2019, exacerbate the water crisis and make things worse for farmers who are struggling to cope.Drought risks are associated with: Deficient or erratic rainfall. Poverty and rural vulnerability. Poor water and soil management.
How does drought affect agriculture in India?
Agricultural productivity has declined by up to 40% in rainfed areas due to severe droughts. This is why farmers in rainfed areas have abandoned farming as their primary source of income. Neglecting dryland farming while forming policies is the biggest lack in policy design for countering droughts in India. In India, almost three-fourths of annual rainfall is received during South West Monsoon Period (June-September) and erratic nature of monsoon (South West Monsoon), with long dry spells & high temperature, is mainly responsible for drought.
What is the effect of drought on soil?
One of the greatest effects that drought has on soils in dryland cropping areas is increased soil erosion. Drought leads to a decline in plant growth and vegetative cover over the soil surface. The susceptibility of photosynthesis-related processes to drought stress is primarily due to stomatal closure, resulting in reduced CO2 intake. This reduction directly affects the rate of photosynthesis, ultimately impacting plant growth and yield.The roots of plants suffering drought stress produce ABA, which transmits a signal via vascular bundles to leaves, causing leaf senescence and stomatal closure (Yang et al. This, in turn, reduces the transpiration rate and increases WUE (Tenorio Berrío et al.Generally, drought stress occurs when the available soil-water becomes scanty and atmospheric conditions cause continuous loss of water by transpiration or evaporation. Water deficit is one of the major abiotic stresses, which adversely affects crop growth and yield.Drought Stress and the External form of Plants. The obvious symptoms of water deficit during the vegetative period are plant height decreased, leaf wilting, number and area of leaves changed. Plant height, severely affected by drought, is closely related to cell enlargement and leaf senescence.This rapid evaporation gathers more moisture in the atmosphere for precipitation, while at the same time drying the land areas below. This accelerated, imbalanced water cycle can lead to more frequent and heavier bouts of extreme precipitation for some regions while leaving others dry.