Drought has been one of the most important limiting factors for crop production, which deleteriously affects food security worldwide. The main objective of the present study was to quantitatively assess the effect of drought on the agronomic traits (e.g., plant height, biomass, yield, and yield components) of rice and wheat in combination with several moderators (e.g., drought stress intensity, rooting environment, and growth stage) using a meta-analysis study. The database was created from 55 published studies on rice and 60 published studies on wheat. The results demonstrated that drought decreased the agronomic traits differently between rice and wheat among varying growth stages. Wheat and rice yields decreased by 27.5% and 25.4%, respectively. Wheat grown in pots showed greater decreases in agronomic traits than those grown in the field. Rice showed opposite growing patterns when compared to wheat in rooting environments. The effect of drought on rice increased with plant growth and drought had larger detrimental influences during the reproductive phase (e.g., blooming stage, filling stage, and maturity). However, an exception was found in wheat, which had similar decreased performance during the complete growth cycle. Based on these results, future droughts could produce lower yields of rice and wheat when compared to the current drought.

Persistent drought severely inhibits plant growth and productivity, which negatively affects terrestrial primary productivity worldwide. Therefore, it is important to investigate the impacts of drought on plant leaf CO₂/H₂O exchange and water use efficiency. This study assessed the responses of net photosynthesis (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration (Tr), and instantaneous water use efficiency (WUE) to drought based on a worldwide meta-analysis of 112 published studies. The results demonstrated that drought decreased Pn, Tr, and Gs significantly and differently among different moderators. C₄ plants had smaller Pn reduction than C₃ plants, which gives C₄ plants an advantage in Pn. But their WUE decreased under drought conditions, indicating a great flexibility in C₄ WUE. Annual herbs sacrificed WUE (−6.2%) to maintain efficient Pn. Perennial herbs took a different strategy in response to drought with an increased WUE (25.1%). Deciduous tree species displayed a greater increase in WUE than conifers and evergreen species. Additionally, Gs had a significant correlation with Pn and Tr, but an insignificant correlation with WUE, which could be because WUE is affected by other factors (e.g., air flow, CO₂ concentration, and relative humidity). These findings have significant implications for understanding the worldwide effects of drought on plant leaf CO₂/H₂O exchange and water use efficiency.

Frequent flash droughts can rapidly lead to water shortage, which affects the stability of ecosystems. This study determines the water-use characteristics and physiological mechanisms underlying Moso bamboo response to flash-drought events, and estimates changes to water budgets caused by extreme drought. We analyzed the variability in forest canopy transpiration versus precipitation from 2011–2013. Evapotranspiration reached 730 mm during flash drought years. When the vapor pressure deficit > 2 kPa and evapotranspiration > 4.27 mm·day⁻¹, evapotranspiration was mainly controlled through stomatal opening and closing to reduce water loss. However, water exchange mainly occurred in the upper 0–50 cm of the soil. When soil volumetric water content of 50 cm was lower than 0.17 m³·m⁻³, physiological dehydration occurred in Moso bamboo to reduce transpiration by defoliation, which leads to water-use efficiency decrease. When mean stand density was <3500 trees·ha⁻¹, the bamboo forest can safely survive the flash drought. Therefore, we recommend thinning Moso bamboo as a management strategy to reduce transpiration in response to future extreme drought events. Additionally, the response function of soil volumetric water content should be used to better simulate evapotranspiration, especially when soil water is limited.

The invasion and spread of alien aquatic organisms pose an increasing threat to ecosystem stability with the excerbated climate change. However, existing studies often paid little attention to the compound ecological risks of multi-species invasions driven by the combined effects of climate factors, topography, water quality, vegetation, and other environmental variables under future climate scenarios. To address the knowledge gap, this study focuses on Pomacea canaliculata and Eichhornia crassipes, utilizing the MaxEnt model and ArcGIS tools to analyze the dominant environmental factors influencing their invasion and spread in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China. Additionally, this research predicts their potential suitable habitat distributions under current and future climate scenarios (SSP245 and SSP585) and compares their spatiotemporal response characteristics. The results show that the MaxEnt model performed with high accuracy for E. crassipes (AUC = 0.952) and good accuracy for P. canaliculata (AUC = 0.880). The habitat selection of E. crassipes is primarily influenced by isothermality, elevation, and temperature seasonality, while P. canaliculata is significantly affected by slope, elevation, and the mean temperature of the warmest season. In terms of current habitat distribution, P. canaliculata occupies a larger range than E. crassipes, with P. canaliculata exhibiting a widespread distribution mainly concentrated in the Hanjiang Plain and the Jiangsu-Anhui coastal plains, whereas E. crassipes follows a belt-like distribution pattern, primarily concentrated in Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River Delta. From 2021 to 2100, the suitable habitat of P. canaliculata is projected to expand under both SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios, with a more extensive and rapid expansion under the high-emission scenario (SSP585), where moderate-to-low suitability areas exhibit a pattern of sharp increases and decreases. In contrast, the suitable habitat of E. crassipes follows a trend of initial expansion followed by contraction under both climate scenarios.