Adaptive Strategy Research Articles

Drought Characterization Using Multiple Indices over the Abbay Basin, Ethiopia

Analyzing agricultural and hydrological drought at different timescales is essential for designing adaptation strategies. This study aimed to assess agricultural and hydrological drought in the Abbay Basin of Ethiopia by using multiple indices, namely the standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), vegetation condition index (VCI), and drought severity index (DSI). Climate extremes were assessed over the Abbay Basin between 1981 and 2022. The results indicate that the years 1982 and 2014 were the most drought-prone, while the year 1988 was the wettest year in the Abbay Basin. The results revealed the presence of extremely dry and severely dry conditions, potentially impacting agricultural output in the region. Agricultural drought was identified during the main crop seasons (June to September). The VCI results indicated the presence of extremely wet and severely wet conditions. In 2012, 65% of the area was affected by extreme drought conditions, while nearly half of the Basin experienced extreme drought in 2013 and 2022. The DSI results indicated the occurrence of agricultural drought, although the spatial coverage of extreme dry conditions was lower than that of the other indices. In 2003, 78.49% of the Basin experienced moderate drought conditions, whereas severe drought affected 20% of the region. In 2010, about 90% of the Basin experienced moderate drought. This study provides valuable insights for agricultural communities, enabling them to mitigate the impact of drought on crop yields by utilizing different adaptation strategies. An adequate knowledge of agricultural and hydrological drought is essential for policymakers to assess the potential effects of drought on socioeconomic activities and to recognize the significance of implementing climate change adaptation measures.

Long-Term Impacts of Runoff and Coastal Reclamation on Tidal Bore Variations in the Qiantang River Estuary, China

Tidal bore dynamics in estuarine environments are influenced by both natural hydrological changes and human activities, such as coastal reclamation. This study focuses on the Qiantang River estuary, assessing the impacts of runoff variations and reclamation on tidal bores over the past five decades. By employing statistical and time-frequency methods, including the Mann–Kendall test, ordered clustering, and wavelet analysis, the relationships between tidal bore height, river discharge, and reclamation activities are examined. The results indicate that increased freshwater discharge reduces bore intensity over short timescales of 0.3 to 1.2 years, while decreased runoff amplifies it. Over longer periods of 4.1 to 8.3 years, a positive correlation emerges, with changes in runoff preceding variations in tidal bore height. Coastal reclamation, particularly the narrowing of channels, has significantly reduced the bore height at Yanguan, especially in the years following the 2000s. Additionally, the long-term interactions of other factors influencing tidal bores are explored. These findings reveal a delayed estuarine response to human modifications, highlighting the necessity of long-term monitoring and adaptive management strategies to mitigate these impacts. The study provides valuable insights into the complex interplay of natural and human factors, offering guidance for future estuarine management and conservation efforts.

Analyzing the Distribution Patterns of Endemic Quercus vulcanica (Boiss. et Heldr. ex) Kotschy in Türkiye Under Climate Change Using Ensemble Modeling

Quercus vulcanica (Boiss. et Heldr. ex) Kotschy (Kasnak oak), one of the 18 Quercus species naturally distributed in Anatolia, is an endemic species with a restricted distribution range. In accordance with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species classification, Quercus vulcanica is designated as a species of low risk (LC: Least Concern). However, it is predicted that the habitat of Quercus vulcanica will narrow and that the species will become endangered as a result of potential climate change scenarios in the future. The aim of this study was to estimate the temporal and spatial distribution of Quercus vulcanica in Anatolia during the LGM, as well as to examine the impact of present and future climate changes on the species. In this context, principal component analysis was applied to 19 bioclimatic variables of the Community Climate System Model Version 4 (CCSM4) climate model, with nine variables identified for use in modeling. Habitat suitability was estimated using the Biodiversity Modeling (BIOMOD) ensemble modeling method, which combines the results of nine different algorithms through the R package ‘biomod2’, applying both committee averaging and weighted average approaches. To evaluate the performance of the models, the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC), True Skill Statistics (TSS), KAPPA and Boyce Index were calculated. The contributions of the environmental variables were determined on a per-algorithm-model basis. The results of the analyses show that the bioclimatic variables that contribute the most to the distribution of the species are Bio8. The modeling results show that Quercus vulcanica is capable of occupying suitable habitat areas across the majority of Anatolia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). It is anticipated that future projections will indicate a notable reduction in the extent of suitable habitat for the species, with the remaining areas confined to the vicinity of the Ilgaz Mountains, Köroğlu Mountains and Bolkar Mountains. Given the increasing destruction that Quercus vulcanica, an endemic plant, will be adversely affected by as a result of human impacts and climate change, it is of the highest importance to develop adaptation strategies with a view to protecting the species’ habitat and the sustainability of the species.

Distinct molecular responses of mangrove plants to hypoxia and reoxygenation stresses contribute to their resilience in coastal wetland environment

Mangroves adapt to periodical submergence and constitute resilient ecosystems in coastal environments. The question is whether they can sustain long submergence stress when sea level rises as a consequence of climate change. To address this, seedlings of two representative mangrove species that acclimate to low to mid tide (Avicennia marina) and mid to high tide (Kandelia obovata) conditions were treated with continual submergence for 7 days as extended hypoxia, or semi-diurnal cyclic submergence and reoxygenation for 7 days. At specific time points, leaves were collected to construct RNA-Sequencing libraries for gene expression analysis. Through the lens of transcriptome, the initial response of A. marina to submergence was mild but more dramatic after prolong immersion. However, the initial response of K. obovata was drastic and reduced in latitude later, suggesting distinct species-specific responses. After adapting to diurnal cycles, both species minimized transcriptome fluctuations similarly. Metabolically, during initial response, sucrose and starch were converted into glucose for fermentation to increase glycolytic flux, coupled with regeneration of NAD+. The energy amelioration was accompanied by longer term phytohormone regulations where ethylene signal transduction pathway was enhanced, but abscisic acid biosynthesis was reduced. Notably, gibberellic acids biosynthesis increased in A. marina but decreased in K. obovata as a unique feature. Genomic level analysis indicated that only about 30 % of the conserved plant submergence responsive genes were expressed during submergence in these mangroves. The function of an ethylene responsive gene was validated in transgenic Arabidopsis. This research elucidates distinct molecular mechanisms and metabolic pathways that empower A. marina and K. obovata to endure prolonged submergence and hypoxia. By highlighting their unique adaptive strategies in response to rising sea levels, these findings enhance our understanding of mangrove resilience and provide insights for the conservation and management of these essential coastal ecosystems in the face of climate change.

More extremely hot days, more heat exposure and fewer cooling options for people of color in Connecticut, U.S.

It is well-documented that people of color in the U.S. are disproportionately exposed to extreme urban heat. However, most studies have focused on large cities for one point in time, and less is known about how heat exposure changes over time in smaller cities. Here, we present a study of the changing nature of urban heat exposure and cooling strategies for ten cities in Connecticut in the U.S. Our results show that people of color experience more heat exposure and fewer adaptation strategies. They experienced higher overall temperatures, more extremely hot days, and larger increases in heat exposure. Also, they have lower air conditioning ownership rates and lower tree cover. Taken together, the results indicate that people of color are not only exposed to higher temperatures but also disproportionately exposed to increasing temperatures over time. With lower heat adaptation capacity, people of color are more vulnerable to increasing urban heat.

The Influence of Mandatory Halal Certification Decisions and Adaptation Strategies on Operational Decisions of Msmes in Sukmajaya District, Depok City, West Java

The Influence of Mandatory Halal Certification Decisions and Adaptation Strategies on Operational Decisions of Msmes in Sukmajaya District, Depok City, West Java

Enhancing Environmental Sensitivity and Vulnerability Assessments for Oil Spill Responses in the Caspian Sea

Oil spills pose significant threats to marine and coastal ecosystems, necessitating advanced methodologies for environmental sensitivity and vulnerability assessments. This study enhances existing frameworks to better manage oil spill risks in the Caspian Sea, a region characterized by its ecological sensitivity and economic dependence on oil extraction. Utilizing the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI), we adapted global standards to the unique conditions of the Caspian Sea and built a sensitivity map of the coastline, which later became one of the components of the integral sensitivity map for the entire Caspian Sea, which includes several biotic and abiotic components. We also developed a comprehensive geodatabase incorporating topographic, infrastructural, and hydrodynamic data. Through the sophisticated modeling of oil spill scenarios using the Oil Spill model of the MIKE 21 software (Release 2016) suite, we simulated spills of varying magnitudes to analyze their potential impacts on the marine and coastal environment. The results enabled the creation of vulnerability maps, pinpointing areas at highest risk and facilitating strategic response planning. Our study demonstrates the critical importance of integrating advanced geospatial analyses and dynamic modeling techniques to improve oil spill preparedness and response strategies. The findings of this study suggest that enhanced monitoring and adaptive management strategies are essential for protecting the Caspian Sea from environmental risks posed by its oil industry.

CSS-Net: A Collaborative Framework for Synthesis and Segmentation of Missing Contrast-enhanced Image with Error-Prediction Consistency

Abstract Automated tumor segmentation plays a critical role in facilitating the diagnosis and assessment of disease progression. Within the realm of tumor segmentation, Contrast-Enhanced (CE) scans are an effective imaging tool that allows for more intuitive observation of tumor characteristics and generally provide better segmentation results compared with Non-Contrast-Enhanced (NCE) scans alone. However, CE images are not available in most cases due to the time-consuming and costly need for contrast and repeat scans. To solve this issue, this paper proposes a Collaborative framework for the Synthesis and Segmentation of missing CE images in medical imaging with error-prediction consistency (CSS-Net). CSS-Net simultaneously addresses synthesis and segmentation tasks, generating both the synthesized CE images and coarse segmentation results. Subsequently, a multi-layer adaptive feature fusion strategy is utilized to effectively leverage the correlation between these tasks, resulting in refined segmentation results. Additionally, the proposed method incorporates a multi-layer feature fusion block, which adaptively selects features pertinent to segmentation. Furthermore, error-prediction consistency is also introduced between coarse and refined segmentation for regularization, leading to high-performance segmentation results. What’s more, we constructed a multimodal esophageal tumor segmentation dataset with 902 patients and validated it on this dataset and two publicly available multimodal brain tumor datasets. The results indicate that our method achieved Dice scores of 89.04% in esophageal tumor segmentation, 77.01% in whole glioma segmentation, and 91.14% in Vestibular Schwannoma segmentation. This performance surpasses that of segmentation using only available modalities and other image synthesis-based segmentation methods, demonstrating the superior robustness of CSS-Net.

A Cross-Zonal Analysis of Farmers’ Climate Adaptation Strategies in West Bengal

Climatic factors are an essential factor in the production of agricultural products. The present study was undertaken to analyze the farmers’ adaptation strategies for climate variability in three agro-climatic zones of West Bengal. Primary data from 150 farmers (50 from each zone) were collected to analyze the adaptation strategies. The study revealed that ‘Crop diversification’ was the most preferred adaptation strategy among the farmers, followed by ‘changing crop variety’ to mitigate climate vagaries. 43.33 per cent of farmers had a medium adoption of adaptation strategies, followed by 39.33, and 17.33 per cent had a high and low adoption. More experienced farmers and farmers with higher annual incomes are more likely to adopt an adaptation strategy. It is suggested that the government ensure farmers can access credit and subsidies. The government should also ensure that bank credit terms are flexible to maximize farmers’ access to affordable credit, enhancing their ability and flexibility to adjust agricultural practices in response to climate variability. Policies promoting climate adaptation should emphasize the need to provide information on better farming practices and climatic variability.

Iranian farmers' response to the drought crisis: How can the consequences of drought be reduced?

Climate change (CC) is an undeniable global phenomenon, impacting various regions, including Iran. Key components of CC, including the increase in greenhouse gases, rising temperatures, and fluctuations in precipitation patterns, are expected to significantly reduce agricultural crop yields in the near future. In response, identifying effective adaptation strategies is critical for mitigating these adverse effects. This study investigates the role of environmental values, risk perception, and psychological distance in shaping Iranian farmers’ adaptation strategies to CC. A sample of 390 farmers from Shushtar County in southwestern Iran was selected through a multi-stage stratified sampling method. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the analysis revealed complex interrelationships between environmental values (biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic), beliefs, risk perception, psychological distance, and farmers' adaptation responses to CC. Furthermore, the results indicated that the study variables explain 67.6% of the variance in farmers' adaptive behaviors, with belief in CC emerging as the most influential factor. These findings not only enrich the current body of literature but also provide actionable insights for policymakers to foster adaptive strategies among farmers.

Geospatial monitoring and analysis of agricultural drought to identify hotspots and risk assessment for Senegal

Agricultural drought, characterized by insufficient soil moisture crucial for crop growth, poses significant challenges to food security and economic sustainability, particularly in water-scarce regions like Senegal. This study addresses this issue by developing a comprehensive geospatial monitoring system for agricultural drought using the Regional Hydrologic Extremes Assessment System (RHEAS). This system, with a high-resolution of 0.05°, effectively simulates daily soil moisture and generates the Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI)-based agricultural drought monitoring. The SMDI derived from the RHEAS has effectively captured historical droughts in Senegal over the recent 30 years period from 1993 to 2022. The SMDI, also provides a comprehensive understanding of regional variations in drought severity (S), duration (D), and frequency (F), through S-D-F analysis to identify key drought hotspots across Senegal. Findings reveal a distinct north-south gradient in drought conditions, with the northern and central Senegal experiencing more frequent and severe droughts. The study highlights that Senegal experiences frequent short-duration droughts with high severity, resulting in extensive spatial impact. Additionally, increasing trends in drought severity and duration suggest evolving climate change effects. These findings emphasize the urgent need for sustainable interventions to mitigate drought impacts on agricultural productivity. Specifically, the study identifies recurrent and intense drought hotspots affecting yields of staple crops like maize and rice, as well as cash crops like peanuts. The developed high-resolution drought monitoring system for Senegal not only identifies hotspots but can also enables prioritizing sustainable approaches and adaptive strategies, ultimately sustaining agricultural productivity and resilience in Senegal's drought-prone regions.

Spatially Compounding Drought Events in Brazil

AbstractSpatially compounding drought events affect multiple locations simultaneously, severely affecting food, water, energy, human health, and infrastructure sectors. Despite the cascading impacts and challenges compound droughts impose on society, we still lack an in‐depth understanding of spatially connected drought occurrences. Given the complexity and costs of droughts in Brazil, identifying regions prone to co‐experiencing droughts is critical for developing effective adaptation measures. Here, we develop a novel framework to assess the spatial co‐occurrence of hydrological drought events, which can be adapted for global applications to evaluate spatially compounding drought. This framework involves extracting drought data from individual catchments and calculating the co‐occurrence of droughts across all catchments. We apply this method to investigate the spatial connectedness of droughts in 511 Brazilian catchments over 39 years (1983–2022). Additionally, we classify catchments based on drought duration, intensity, deficit, number of events, and spatial connectedness to identify regions with similar drought behavior. Our findings reveal significant variability in drought characteristics and connectedness across Brazil, with the Central‐Northeast and Northwest Amazon regions being most affected by multiple and widespread droughts. We identify five distinct regions in Brazil that exhibit common drought behaviors, sharing attributes such as aridity, catchment area, and precipitation seasonality. These regions hold the potential to guide future adaptation plans for managing hydrological compound extremes at both the catchment and regional scales, including the development of risk pool networks. Our results underscore the importance of considering the interactions of spatially compounding hydrological droughts in risk assessments and adaptation strategies.

Microbial Mat Dominated by Amphora spp. and Their Adaptative Strategies in an Arsenic-Rich Brackish Pond

Microbial Mat Dominated by Amphora spp. and Their Adaptative Strategies in an Arsenic-Rich Brackish Pond

Emotion regulation mediates the relation between intolerance of uncertainty and emotion difficulties: A longitudinal investigation.

Intolerance of uncertainty has been proposed as a transdiagnostic factor in emotional disorders. Despite comprehensive empirical evidence demonstrating the association between intolerance of uncertainty and emotional disorders, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Drawing on theoretical frameworks and empirical studies, the current study proposed that emotion regulation emerges as a potential mechanism. We explored the connections among intolerance of uncertainty, eight emotion regulation strategies (both adaptive and maladaptive), and emotional difficulties (specifically anxiety and depression) using a three-wave longitudinal approach (N = 341). Our findings revealed that heightened intolerance of uncertainty predicted increased anxiety but not depression over time. Greater intolerance of uncertainty significantly predicted elevated levels of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies including experiential avoidance, thought suppression, rumination, and reassurance-seeking. Adaptive strategies (i.e., mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, problem-solving) predicted lower anxiety and/or depression whereas maladaptive emotion regulation strategy rumination predicted greater levels of anxiety and depression. Surprisingly, thought suppression predicted lower levels of anxiety and depression. More importantly, our analysis showed that both rumination and thought suppression served as significant mediators in the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and both anxiety and depression. These results hold implications for future interventions, emphasising rumination and thought suppression as potential targets for interventions aimed at alleviating emotional difficulties in individuals with intolerance of uncertainty.

Dephosphorylation of bZIP59 by PP2A ensures appropriate shade avoidance response in Arabidopsis.

Changes in light quality and quantity experienced by many shade-intolerant plants grown in close proximity lead to transcriptional reprogramming and shade avoidance syndrome (SAS). Despite the importance of phosphorylation-dependent signaling in cellular physiology, phosphorylation events during SAS are largely unknown. Here, we examined shade-regulated phosphorylation events in Arabidopsis using quantitative phosphoproteomics. We confirmed shade-induced dephosphorylation of bZIP59, a basic region/leucine zipper motif (bZIP) transcription factor. Shade treatment promotes the nuclear localization of bZIP59, which can be mimicked by mutation of the phosphorylation sites on bZIP59. Phenotypic analysis identified that bZIP59 negatively regulated shade-induced hypocotyl elongation. bZIP59 repressed the shade-induced activation of certain growth-related genes, while shade increased the DNA binding of bZIP59. Furthermore, the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) mediated dephosphorylation of bZIP59. Our study characterized a previously unidentified mechanism by which the phytochrome B (phyB)-PP2A-bZIP59 regulatory module integrates shade signals and transcriptomes, broadening our knowledge of phosphorylation strategies for rapid adaptation to shade.

Adaptive Robust Autonomous Vehicle Driving Strategy in Transportation Systems: Gated Leakage Mechanism Designs

Adaptive Robust Autonomous Vehicle Driving Strategy in Transportation Systems: Gated Leakage Mechanism Designs

Double adaptive event-triggered strategy for leader-following group consensus of heterogeneous multi-agent systems in cooperative–competitive networks

This article investigates adaptive event-triggered control for leader-following group consensus of hybrid heterogeneous multi-agent systems (HMASs) composed of single- and double-integrator agents under cooperative–competitive relationships. By using fully distributed control protocol and adaptive protocol, the leader-following group consensus can be achieved without global information. Additionally, a novel adaptive double dynamic event-triggered mechanism (DDETM) is proposed, in which two independent adaptive event-triggered conditions are devised to maintain events of communication and updates of controllers. Furthermore, adaptive parameters and internal dynamic variables are employed to reduce the number of triggers and exclude Zeno phenomenon. By utilizing Lyapunov stability theory, some sufficient conditions are acquired for the leader-following group consensus of the HMASs. Finally, simulation examples are given to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Adaptive connectivity-preserving formation control with a dynamic event-triggering mechanism

Connectivity preservation for real-life multi-agent systems is key to designing an effective and reliable control algorithm to achieve desired objectives. But the coexistence of system nonlinearities and uncertainties makes it difficult for the algorithm design, and especially in the event-triggered setting, such difficulty becomes severer due to the demand for integration of multiple ingredients. This paper focuses on proposing an adaptive connectivity-preserving formation control strategy that incorporates a dynamic event-triggering mechanism, in the scenario of the unknown control directions and intrinsic nonlinearities coupling with parameter uncertainties. First, a cluster of potential functions serving as control barrier functions are given to maintain the prescribed connectivity of communication graph. Second, two types of dynamic gains (one type is based on a Nussbaum function) are introduced for agents to cope with the system nonlinearities, uncertainties and the adverse effect of the execution error. As such, an adaptive event-triggered formation protocol is constructed such that the desired formation with connectivity preservation is achieved while a positive minimum inter-execution interval is ensured for each agent to avoid Zeno behavior. Particularly, the threshold in the developed event-triggering mechanism is dynamically adjusted online, rather than static, which better improves resource efficiency. A simulation example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed strategy.

Role of the endonasal endoscopic approach in intraorbital tumor surgery: insights from a single-center experience.

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) in the surgical management of intraorbital tumors and analyze the adjunctive role of the transorbital approach (TOA) and extended modified medial maxillectomy (EMMM) in addressing anatomically complex tumors. This study retrospectively reviewed 13 cases of primary intraorbital tumors managed with EEA, integrating TOA and EMMM, based on specific tumor location and extent. A detailed analysis was conducted on the surgical techniques used, tumor size and location in relation to critical structures such as the optic nerve, and overall surgical outcomes, with a focus on the extent of resection and postoperative visual function. Of the 13 cases analyzed (4 cavernous hemangiomas, 3 schwannomas, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, liposarcoma, inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, osteoma, and myxoid spindle tumor), the EEA served as the primary surgical method, especially for the 8 intraconal tumors situated medially to the optic nerve, with 1 tumor situated inferiorly to the optic nerve. Extraconal tumors, present in 5 cases, necessitated additional approaches: TOA was utilized for tumors with anterior extension, and EMMM was applied to those extending toward the inferior orbital wall. Gross-total resection was accomplished in 80% of the operative cases, with an overall improvement in visual function observed in 69.2% of the patients postsurgery. Complications were infrequent, with enophthalmos requiring subsequent reconstruction and a permanent slight visual field defect in the upper outer quadrant, occurring in 1 case each, underscoring the safety and efficacy of integrated surgical approaches. The combination of EEA with TOA and EMMM provides a comprehensive and adaptable surgical strategy for intraorbital tumors, accommodating various lesion locations and complexities. This combined approach not only facilitates extensive tumor resection but also maximizes the preservation of ocular function and cosmetic outcomes. The favorable results of this study support the use of a multidisciplinary surgical approach and highlight the potential for improved patient outcomes with the continued development of endoscopic techniques. Further research with a larger cohort is essential to validate these findings and establish guidelines for the combined use of these surgical methods.

Adaptive water use strategies of artificially revegetated plants in a water-limited desert: A case study from the Mu Us Sandy Land

Understanding the water use patterns of artificially revegetated plants in arid and semi-arid desert regions with shallow groundwater is crucial for sustainable water resource management and effective vegetation restoration strategies. Despite extensive vegetation rehabilitation in the Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL), the interspecific and seasonal variations in plant water sources under similar groundwater conditions remain unclear. We conducted isotopic analysis of hydrogen and oxygen in main sand-fixing plants—Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, Amygdalus pcdunculata Pall, and Artemisia desertorum Spreng—alongside potential water sources during the 2019–2021 growing seasons. Our aim was to elucidate seasonal changes in plant water uptake patterns by correcting isotopic offsets in xylem water using the MixSIAR model. Results indicated that A. desertorum predominantly utilized water from the 0–150 cm soil layer (67.52 ± 14.44 %) throughout all seasons. Conversely, P. sylvestris and A. pedunculata shifted their primary water sources from the 60–240 cm soil layer during the dry season (55.20 ± 2.12 and 57.96 ± 1.45 %, respectively) to the 0–150 cm soil layer during the rainy season (68.44 ± 4.46 and 66.19 ± 1.68 %, respectively), suggesting greater water uptake adaptability in trees and shrubs compared to grasses. Groundwater contribution to plant water uptake showed no significant interspecies difference during the rainy season (p > 0.05). However, P. sylvestris and A. pedunculata significantly increased groundwater absorption during the dry season compared to the rainy season (p < 0.05). Correcting δ2H offsets in xylem water revealed an underestimation of groundwater contributions by 16.06 ± 9.09 % in the dry season and 4.25 ± 0.55 % in the rainy season. Given these interspecific and seasonal variations in water uptake patterns among sand-fixing plants, and the imperative for sustainable groundwater use, tailored water management strategies are essential to prevent the degradation of restored ecosystems in this water-limited desert region.