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Large-scale afforestation on the Loess Plateau has been subjected to more frequent and severe drought due to climate change. However, there is a lack of definite evidence elucidating the adjustments in water supply-demand relationships under prolonged drought. In this study, we investigated the responses of plant characteristics related to plant water supply and demand in 2-year-old Robinia pseudoacacia seedlings to soil water availability (SWA). We systemically analyzed the acclimation of plant water use to prolonged drought. A logistic function was used to fit relationships between normalized net photosynthetic rate (P n ), transpiration rate (T r ), stomatal conductance (G s ), soil-root hydraulic conductance (K sr ), root-leaf hydraulic conductance (K rl ), and whole plant hydraulic conductance (K plant ) with SWA. The results revealed significant difference in responses of these parameters to SWA (p  < .001). The sensitivities of P n , T r , and G s to drought increased from 60-day to 120-day drought, contributing to reduce water consumption. Meanwhile, the relative stable sensitivities of hydraulic conductance (K sr , K sr , and K plant ) promoted a consistent water supply at different ecological levels. Additionally, coordination between G s with hydraulic conductance helped maintain normal physiological activities under drought. These findings enhance our understanding of adjustments in plant water use in response to prolonged drought in Robinia pseudoacacia. Study Implications: Our findings have implications for better understanding the acclimation of Robinia pseudoacacia to prolonged drought. First, our results suggest decreased water demand (water consumption) by Robinia pseudoacacia under prolonged drought because the sensitivities of net photosynthetic rate (P n ), transpiration rate (T r ), and stomatal conductance (G s ) to drought increased from 60-day to 120-day drought treatments. Second, our study indicates a relative stable water supply (soil-root, root-leaf, and whole plant hydraulic conductance; K sr , K rl , and K plant ) of Robinia pseudoacacia at different ecological levels under prolonged drought. Finally, our research has implications for the coordination of stomatal and hydraulic regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although reducing students' aggressive behaviors and improving their creativity are both important commitments of educators, they are usually treated independently as unrelated tasks. However, cumulative evidence suggests potential links between aggression and creativity, not only from the perspectives of personality traits and psychological development, but also from their shared cognitive mechanisms. This implies that there may be an approach to achieving these two goals through a single intervention. Moreover, this new approach may overcome the limitation of the usually adopted aggression intervention, which is limited in its regulatory effectiveness and might bring about some disadvantageous impacts on creativity that are closely associated with aggression. To test this possibility, the present study implemented a four‐session, 2‐week creative thinking training (CTT) intervention for students with high aggression scores to examine whether it could simultaneously downregulate aggression and increase creativity. Our results demonstrate that, compared to the control group, the intervention group experienced significant improvements in creativity and a reduction in aggression following the CTT intervention. Furthermore, our findings suggest that this regulatory effect can persist for up to 6 months. The CTT‐induced creativity change (increase) could significantly correlate with and predict the CTT‐induced aggression decrease, thus suggesting that the CTT could transform aggression into creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a crucial predictability source on a sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) timescale. Therefore, the models participating in the WWRP/WCRP S2S prediction project focus on accurately predicting and analyzing the MJO. This study provided a detailed description of the configuration within the IAP-CAS S2S forecast system. We assessed the accuracy of the IAP-CAS model's MJO forecast using traditional RMM analysis and cluster analysis. Then, we explained the reasons behind any bias observed in the MJO forecast. Comparing the 20-year hindcast with observations, we found that the IAP-CAS ensemble mean has a skill of 24 days. However, there is still room for improvement in the ensemble spread. To examine the MJO structure in detail, we used cluster analysis to classify the MJO events during boreal winter into four types: fast-propagating, slow-propagating, standing, and jumping patterns of MJO. The model exhibits biases of overestimated amplitude and faster propagation speed in the propagating MJO events. Upon further analysis, it was found that the model forecasted a wetter background state. This leads to more intense forecasted convection and stronger coupled winds, especially in the fast MJO events. However, the horizontal moisture advection effect for eastward propagation is overestimated in IAP-CAS due to the wetter state and more substantial MJO circulations, which results in a faster MJO mode. These findings show that the IAP-CAS skilfully forecasts signals of MJO and its propagation, and they also provide valuable guidance for improving the current MJO forecast by developing the ensemble system and moisture forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall partitioning is a key process in forest ecosystems that affects the forest hydrological cycle and ecological services. However, little is known about the rainfall partitioning in Pinus tabuliformis (PT), Robinia pseudoacacia (RP), and Pinus tabuliformis×Robinia pseudoacacia (PT × RP) forests, which are widely distributed on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) for controlling soil and water losses. The objectives of this study were to compare the rainfall partitioning and conduct interception modelling in PT, RP, and PT × RP forests, using data from the Ansai and Changwu sites on the CLP. The sites feature similar weather conductions and both pure and mixed forests of the same age. The tree density of PT × RP was moderate at the Ansai site but higher at the Changwu site compared to PT and RP. We quantitatively measured the throughfall (Tf), stemflow (Sf), and interception loss (Ic) for the forests at the two sites during the growing season (May–October, 2022), and simulated Ic using the Revised Gash Analytical Model (RGAM) and Liu model. The results showed that measured Ic for PT × RP (26.0% of the total gross rainfall, Pg) was larger than for RP (22.0% of Pg) but smaller than for PT (27.8% of Pg) at the Ansai site, and vice versa for the Tf and Sf (RP > PT × RP > PT), while the measured Ic for PT × RP (33.7% of Pg) at the Changwu site was larger than both for PT (31.1% of Pg) and RP (19.5% of Pg). The Tf and Sf for PT × RP was smaller than for PT and RP. Given the similar weather conditions, differences in Ic for the pure and mixed forests at each site were attributed to canopy storage capacity, wet canopy evaporation rate, and tree density. Additionally, the RGAM and the Liu model effectively simulated and captured the differences in Ic for PT, RP, and PT × RP. However, the RGAM performed better with a relative error less than −7.3%, Nash‐Sutcliffe model efficiency ranging from 0.82 to 0.95, and root mean square error less than 0.5 mm. According to the RGAM, evaporation from the wet canopy during rainfall events and after rainfall cessation were the two most influential components. The results of this study suggest that mixed forest can optimize rainfall partitioning compared to pure forests, but a reasonable density should be adopted to increase rainwater replenishment to the forest floor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]