Steven Veach

Rising global temperatures and decreasing rainfall will lead to more frequent droughts in many parts of the world, and the change may be noticeable in some regions by the middle of the 21st century, according to a study by graduate student Justin Sheffield and civil and environmental engineering professor Eric Wood. Their paper, published in Climate Dynamics in July, used eight models from the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment to examine changes in soil moisture over time. While the models varied in their predictions, the authors found that drought increased in each scenario, particularly during a region’s warm season, an important period for agriculture. Most susceptible: the Mediterranean, West Africa, Central Asia, and Central America.