Face Of Drought Research Articles

The effects of drinking water service fragmentation on drought-related water security.

Drought is a critical stressor that contributes to water insecurity. In the United States, an important pathway by which drought affects households' access to clean, reliable drinking water for basic needs is through the organization and activities of community water systems. Research on the local political economy of drinking water provision reveals the constraints on community water systems that affect their performance when confronting drought hazards. Fragmentation in responsibility for drinking water contributes to disparities in drought vulnerability, preparation, and response across households and across communities. The nature and extent of these disparities require further investigation to identify strategies for expanding water security in the face of drought and other water hazards.

Values, environmental vulnerabilities, and implications on adaptation: Evidence from an indigenous Raika community in Rajasthan, India

Global environmental change has exacerbated the vulnerabilities of pastoral communities in India, who have already been sidelined in the current development and modernization discourse. The Raikas are one of the largest groups of indigenous nomadic pastoralists residing in the semi-arid regions of Northwest India. They are facing the brunt of shrinking grazing areas, social marginalization, and economic pressures. The past two decades have witnessed additional challenges, such as water scarcity and rainfall variability, which have pushed them beyond their adaptive threshold. These churnings have led to a radical shift in their values and climate adaptation strategies. However, the role and importance of social values in shaping their response to environmental change are not well understood. This study conducted life history interviews and focus group discussions with community members to examine social values and their linkages with climate adaptation decision-making in Raikas. The findings demonstrate that the community’s livelihood, health, and social cohesion are severely affected by environmental change, entwined with social, economic, and political stressors. There is a parallel change taking place in their social values. Their values related to esteem, self-actualization, safety, and belongingness have witnessed shifts, leading them away from pastoralism. This has ramifications on their adaptation decision-making. Their time-tested and preferred choice of adaptation in the face of drought and water scarcity – seasonal livestock migration – is no longer desirable. New adaptation options, such as urban migration, have emerged, while traditional measures have declined in popularity. There is an urgent need to understand and engage with a broader set of methodologies and literature to facilitate the integration of social values in vulnerability and adaptation assessments. The inclusion of social values presents an opportunity to understand the subjective limits of adaptation better as well as to expand adaptation pathways.

Nutrient addition increases grassland sensitivity to droughts.

Grasslands worldwide are expected to experience an increase in extreme events such as drought, along with simultaneous increases in mineral nutrient inputs as a result of human industrial activities. These changes are likely to interact because elevated nutrient inputs may alter plant diversity and increase the sensitivity to droughts. Dividing a system's sensitivity to drought into resistance to change during the drought and rate of recovery after the drought generates insights into different dimensions of the system's resilience in the face of drought. Here, we examine the effects of experimental nutrient fertilization and the resulting diversity loss on the resistance to and recovery from severe regional droughts. We do this at 13 North American sites spanning gradients of aridity, five annual grasslands in California, and eight perennial grasslands in the Great Plains. We measured rate of resistance as the change in annual aboveground biomass (ANPP) per unit change in growing season precipitation as conditions declined from normal to drought. We measured recovery as the change in ANPP during the postdrought period and the return to normal precipitation. Resistance and recovery did not vary across the 400-mm range of mean growing season precipitation spanned by our sites in the Great Plains. However, chronic nutrient fertilization in the Great Plains reduced drought resistance and increased drought recovery. In the California annual grasslands, arid sites had a greater recovery postdrought than mesic sites, and nutrient addition had no consistent effects on resistance or recovery. Across all study sites, we found that predrought species richness in natural grasslands was not consistently associated with rates of resistance to or recovery from the drought, in contrast to earlier findings from experimentally assembled grassland communities. Taken together, these results suggest that human-induced eutrophication may destabilize grassland primary production, but the effects of this may vary across regions and flora, especially between perennial and annual-dominated grasslands.

The diversity of soil microbial communities matters when legumes face drought.

The cultivation of legumes shows promise for the development of sustainable agriculture, but yield instability remains one of the main obstacles for its adoption. Here, we tested whether the yield stability (i.e., resistance and resilience) of pea plants subjected to drought could be enhanced by soil microbial diversity. We used a dilution approach to manipulate the microbial diversity, with a genotype approach to distinguish the effect of symbionts from that of microbial diversity as a whole. We investigated the physiology of plants in response to drought when grown on a soil containing high or low level of microbial diversity. Plants grown under high microbial diversity displayed higher productivity and greater resilience after drought. Yield losses were mitigated by 15% on average in the presence of high soil microbial diversity at sowing. Our study provides proof of concept that the soil microbial community as a whole plays a key role for yield stability after drought even in plant species living in relationships with microbial symbionts. These results emphasize the need to restore soil biodiversity for sustainable crop management and climate change adaptation.

Soil fertility – the only possible foundation for more sustainable agriculture

The reductionist approach to intensification of agriculture has created unanticipated economic, ecological and social consequences. Across the steppes, elimination of perennial legumes from the crop rotation and even elimination of crop rotation, large areas under black fallow, and the demise of crop and animal husbandry are draining soil fertility – and in many places loss of the soil itself. Data from long-term field experiments demonstrate the importance of perennial legumes in crop rotation for nitrogen- and water-use efficiency, accumulation of soil organic matter in deeper soil layers, and resilience in the face of drought.

Litter microbial respiration and enzymatic resistance to drought stress

Many ecosystems are experiencing an increase in drought conditions as a consequence of climate warming and changing precipitation patterns. The stress imposed by these environmental changes can affect ecosystem processes such as the extracellular enzymatic degradation of carbon-containing leaf litter by soil microbial communities. However, the magnitude of these impacts may depend on the composition and metabolism of the microbial community. Based on the hypothesis of local adaptation, microbial communities native to warm-dry ecosystems should display a greater capacity to degrade leaf litter polymers with extracellular enzymes following exposure to warm-dry conditions. To test this hypothesis, we performed a microcosm study in which we monitored extracellular enzyme activity and respiration of microbial communities from five ecosystems along a southern California climate gradient, ranging from warmer, drier desert to wetter, cooler subalpine forest. To simulate drought and rewetting, we subjected microcosms to periods of high temperature and low moisture followed by a water pulse. We found that enzyme activity of wet-cool communities generally exceeded that of warm-dry communities across enzyme types for the five sites we considered. Additionally, we observed a significant decrease in respiration for all communities after longer durations of drought exposure. Although these findings did not align with our expectations of local adaptation, they suggest litter-inhabiting microbial communities are able to retain metabolic functioning in environmental conditions different from those of their native ecosystems. These results may imply that factors such as litter chemistry impose greater constraints than climate on community metabolic function. Overall, despite differences in local climates, microbial communities from semiarid regions may be metabolically adapted to maintain functioning in the face of drought.

Using the RTM-GWAS procedure to detect the drought tolerance QTL-allele system at the seedling stage under sand culture in a half-sib population of soybean [Glycine max(L.) Merr.

Soybean crops face drought as one of their major yield barriers. Dissecting the complete genetic architecture of drought tolerance (DT) is an ongoing challenge for soybean breeders. A half-sib population with 404 lines consisting of two recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations with M8206 as the joint parent (M8206 × TongShan and ZhengYang × M8206) was established and tested for their DT under sand culture. The population was sequenced using RAD-seq (restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing) filtered with minor allele frequency (MAF) ≥ 0.01, and 55 936 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were obtained and organized into 6137 SNPLDBs (SNP linkage disequilibrium blocks). The innovative RTM-GWAS (restricted two stage multi-locus genome-wide association study) identified 46 novel QTLs with 107 alleles on an average of 38.67% of the phenotypic variance (PV) collectively for relative plant length (RPL) and relative plant dry weight (RPDW). The identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with their corresponding alleles for RPL and RPDW were structured into QTL-allele matrices, showing the DT genetic architecture of the three parents and half-sib population. From the matrices, the possible best genotype was predicted to have their weighted average value (WAV) over two indicators 1.663, while the top 10 optimal crosses among RILs with 95thpercentile WAV was 0.872–0.960, transgressive over the parents (0.469–0.675) but much less than 1.663, depicting further pyramiding potential. From the detected QTL-allele system, 63 potential candidate genes collectively for both RPL and RPDW indicators explaining on average of 26.94% PV were annotated and χ2-tested as a DT potential candidate gene system involving nine biological processes, endorsing the genetic complexity of DT.

Temporal variation of stocking rate and primary production in the face of drought and land use change

Rangeland stocking rate is subjected to opposite forces. On the one hand, it is expected to fluctuate with interannual variations of aboveground net primary production (ANPP). On the other hand, it is expected to be stabilized by human interventions aimed at keeping a constant monetary flow. The global drought experienced during the first decade of the current century decreased ANPP in many regions. Argentinean rangelands suffered such drought amid an expansion of crop area. We assessed the relative impact of precipitation trends and human interventions on stocking rate and its components across a wide ANPP gradient in Argentina (from 1000 to 7000 kg.ha−1.year−1). We estimated ANPP through remote sensing, from 2001 to 2009, and gathered data on beef cattle stocking numbers per class and rangeland area (n = 67 political districts of Argentina) from 2002 to 2009. All the significant temporal trends of ANPP were negative (36% of the districts). Fifty-one percent of the districts showed a significant temporal trend of stocking rate. Despite the negative trend of ANPP, stocking rate increased in 76% of these districts. The decrease in the remaining 24% was less than expected from the reduction of ANPP. Positive trends of stocking rate were associated with an increase of total livestock in the same rangeland area, and negative ones with a decrease of total stocking and an increase of total rangeland area. Steers accounted for most of the stocking rate changes. As expected from this decoupling between stocking and ANPP, the interannual CV of stocking rate was about half the CV of ANPP. In the face of drought and strong land use changes, human interventions uncoupled or softened the response of stocking rate to ANPP. These responses were probably driven by economic factors and may have profound negative consequences on ecological sustainability.

بررسی برهمکنش تنشهای شوری، خشکی و کود نیتروژن بر عملکرد، اجزای عملکرد و برخی صفات فیزیولوژیک ذرت (.Zea mays L)

به‌منظور بررسی برهمکنش شوری، خشکی و نیتروژن بر روی برخی صفات فیزیولوژیک، عملکرد و اجزای عملکرد ذرت (هیبرید متوسط ­رس 604) آزمایشی به‌صورت کرت‌های دو بار خردشده در قالب طرح بلوک­های کامل تصادفی در سه تکرار در مزرعه تحقیقاتی دانشکده کشاورزی دانشگاه ایلام در بهار و تابستان 1396 اجرا شد. تیمارهای آزمایش شامل چهار سطح شوری (صفر، 2، 4 و 6 دسی­ زیمنس بر متر) از منبع سنگ نمک سدیم به‌عنوان عامل اصلی، سه سطح آبیاری (100، 80 و 60 درصد نیاز آبی گیاه) به‌عنوان عامل فرعی و سه سطح کود نیتروژن از منبع اوره (صفر، 100 و 150 کیلوگرم در هکتار) به‌عنوان عامل فرعی فرعی در نظر گرفته شد. نتایج نشان داد که اثر متقابل شوری، آبیاری و نیتروژن بر صفات تعداد دانه در بلال، تعداد ردیف در بلال، تعداد دانه در ردیف، عملکرد دانه، عملکرد زیستی و شاخص برداشت معنی‌دار شد. این صفات در بالاترین سطوح تنش اعمال‌شده نسبت به شرایط بدون تنش و کاربرد 150 کیلوگرم در هکتار نیتروژن، به ترتیب برابر 59، 40.6، 40، 69، 65 و 46 درصد کاهش نشان دادند.بیشترین میزان نشت یونی (45 درصد) در بالاترین میزان شوری، حداقل آبیاری و بدون مصرف نیتروژن مشاهده شد. محتوای نسبی آب برگ، کلروفیل a، b، کل و کارتنوئید نیز تحت اثرات دوگانه شوری و خشکی، در بالاترین میزان تنش اعمال‌شده به نسبت شرایط بدون تنش، به ترتیب برابر 18، 46، 32، 40 و 44 درصد کاهش یافتند. نتایج نشان داد کاربرد 100 و 150 کیلوگرم در هکتار نیتروژن در سطوح مختلف تنش، موجب کاهش اثرات تنش‌ها شد و افزایش عملکرد را در پی داشت. همچنین مشاهده شد، تمامی صفات موردبررسی در بالاترین میزان تنش‌ها، پاسخ تقریبا یکسانی به تیمار کودی 100 و 150 کیلوگرم در هکتار نیتروژن داشتند؛ بنابراین به نظر می­رسد که به جهت افزایش مقاومت گیاه ذرت و رسیدن به حداکثر عملکرد در شرایط تنش، کاربرد 100 کیلوگرم در هکتار نیتروژن نسبت به مقادیر بیشتر آن ازلحاظ زیست‌محیطی و اقتصادی مناسب­تر باشد.

Effects of extreme drought on primary production, species composition and species diversity of a Mediterranean annual plant community

AbstractQuestionsWhat are the effects of extreme drought on above‐ground and below‐ground net primary production (ANPP and BNPP, respectively) of an annual plant community in a Mediterranean shrubland? How do annual plant communities in Mediterranean shrublands respond to extreme drought, in terms of changes in their species composition, species richness, and species diversity?LocationA Mediterranean shrubland in the Judean Hills, Israel.MethodRainout shelters were used to simulate a 66% reduction in annual rainfall, preceded by a baseline year when no treatments were applied. Above‐ground and below‐ground (i.e., root) biomass was harvested and species surveys were performed following one growing season.ResultsAbove‐ground primary production was significantly reduced by drought, while below‐ground production remained mostly stable. Consequently, the shoot:root ratio was reduced by drought, indicating either increased community resource allocation to root production at the expense of shoots or stable root biomass production in the face of drought. Community diversity increased in droughted plots, and significant changes were detected in species composition and dominance patterns.ConclusionsExtreme drought had a profound effect at the ecosystem and community level on the studied Mediterranean shrubland. Extreme drought seems to increase species diversity and evenness in the short term, likely due to release from competition. We predict this effect to be countered by low biomass production and individual species abundance if extreme drought persists a sufficiently long time, leading to significant changes in long‐term plant dominance patterns and community structure.

Grazing management for more resilient mixed livestock farming systems on native grasslands of southern South America

AbstractDroughts in southern South America affect grazing systems in many ways. They reduce biomass productivity; decrease livestock feed intake, weight and reproductive performance; increase farmers’ costs; and reduce farm income. It was hypothesized that simple grazing management variables affect the resilience of grazing systems to droughts at the paddock and farm scales. The effects of grazing management on herbage and animal production were assessed at paddock level, and how technological and structural variables relate to the production and economic performances at farm level. Results of a grazing experiment controlling herbage allowance at paddock level showed that resistance of herbage accumulation and animal live weight to drought was significantly higher for paddocks with higher pre‐drought herbage allowance than for those managed to low herbage allowance treatments. A strong positive linear relationship was found between pre‐drought herbage height and resistance of herbage accumulation rate (p < .01). In a longitudinal study of nine farms in Uruguay, resistance of cow pregnancy rate to drought was positively correlated with cow pregnancy rate (r = .72, p = .02) and farm net income (r = .78, p = .02), and negatively correlated with sheep‐to‐cattle ratio (r = −.80, p = .01). These correlations suggest that farms with higher incomes and low proportions of sheep in the herd withstand drought better (in terms of pregnancy rate). Four common regional production strategies were identified that react differently when farmers face drought, and these results can aid farmers in those regions to design more resilient mixed livestock farming systems and can inform policymakers about effective strategies for mitigating drought impacts in the region.

Eucalypt seedlings are aided by phosphorus in the face of drought.

Drought is an increasingly common climatic event that can devastate ecosystems, as well as surrounding agricultural and forestry industries. Few places face this challenge more than Australia, where millennia of droughts linked to geography and climatic drivers, such as El Niño, have shaped the flora and fauna into forms predicated on resilience and economy. How an organism responds to these cyclic challenges is a combination of the inherent tolerance mechanisms encoded in their genome and outside influences, such as the effect of nutrients and symbiotic interactions. In this issue of Physiologia Plantarum, Tariq et al. (2019) describes how the presence of the element phosphorus can bolster the physiological and biochemical response of eucalypt seedlings to severe drought conditions.

Water footprint and irrigation use efficiency of important crops in Northern Cyprus from an environmental, economic and dietary perspective.

Availability of freshwater is currently one of the most important limiting factors for crop production and food security throughout the world. Northern Cyprus is one of the world’s most important countries that has been facing drought and salinization problems since the 1970 s. The present study aimed to determine the irrigation use efficiency (IUE), irrigation economic productivity (IEP), irrigation economic efficiency (IEE) and irrigation dietary efficiency (IDE) of some major crops in Northern Cyprus to ensure better planning for sustainable water management, not only for Northern Cyprus but also for all countries facing similar problems. The results of the present study showed that both carob and fig crops require the least amount (24 L) of irrigation to produce 1 kg of fruit, and “open field” lettuce and “greenhouse” eggplant require the least amount (10 and 16 L) of irrigation to produce 1 kg of vegetables in Northern Cyprus. The irrigation economic productivity (IEP) and irrigation dietary efficiency (IDE) of crops were also found to be significantly different and meaningful for different crops. Our results showed that reshaping the distribution of crops based on their water consumption would reduce the use of water resources while continuing to feed the population.

Linkage of agricultural drought with meteorological drought in different climates of Iran

This study investigates the linkage between agricultural drought and meteorological drought, using normalization different vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) for the whole of Iran in four periods of 16 days of late March, April, May, and June between 2000 and 2017. LST and NDVI were obtained from the production of MODIS MOD13A2 and MOD11A2. In the next step, the basic time synchronization of LST and NDVI was performed by the mean of two 8-day LST images and their conversion to 16-day LST for each year. The vegetation health index (VHI) was calculated from the combination of temperature condition index (TCI) and vegetation condition index (VCI). Then, Iran’s map of standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI) was calculated on a 12-month timescale for 68 meteorological stations with the inverse distance weighted (IDW) method. By using ArcGIS 10.5, the Pearson correlation coefficient and the slope of linear regression were calculated between 12-month SPEI and VHI for all four periods in different climates: hyper dry, dry, semi-dry, semi-humid, and humid. Results showed that the correlation increased when the temperature increased. This increase occurred in dry and hyper-dry climates. As the temperature rose, the slope of the linear regression for 12-month standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI) on vegetation health index (VHI) increased. The highest and lowest average effects of the slope were observed in dry and climatic class, respectively. With increasing temperature, the need for water in plants will increase. Hence, there is a direct relation or a positive correlation between temperature and correlation strength and slope effect. Therefore, plants more seriously will face drought stress during the drought period, and this drought stress has a positive correlation with drought intensity. From this study, it was concluded that the highest correlation and the highest slope effect between the 12-month SPEI and VHI happened in the dry climatic class in June.

Do forests relieve crop thirst in the face of drought? Empirical evidence from South China

Abstract Although the importance of forests in climate change mitigation has been widely recognized, there has been a lack of empirical research regarding the role of forests in agricultural adaptation to climate change. This paper uses a careful designed household survey in South China that considers an exogenous shock of drought, to determine whether the presence of natural and planted forests near rice-producing villages can reduce the adverse effects of drought on rice yield. After controlling for local climate and water infrastructure, we find robust evidence that natural forests and not planted forests have significant positive effects on rice yield, due to their influence on the availability of water for irrigation. Although drought hinders farmers’ access to irrigation, which negatively affects rice yield, forests near villages provide protection for rice against drought. These findings support the adoption of forest ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) to cope with climate change and enhance food security.

Arabidopsis species deploy distinct strategies to cope with drought stress.

Background and AimsWater limitation is an important determinant of the distribution, abundance and diversity of plant species. Yet, little is known about how the response to limiting water supply changes among closely related plant species with distinct ecological preferences. Comparison of the model annual species Arabidopsis thaliana with its close perennial relatives A. lyrata and A. halleri, can help disentangle the molecular and physiological changes contributing to tolerance and avoidance mechanisms, because these species must maintain tolerance and avoidance mechanisms to increase long-term survival, but they are exposed to different levels of water stress and competition in their natural habitat.MethodsA dry-down experiment was conducted to mimic a period of missing precipitation. The covariation of a progressive decrease in soil water content (SWC) with various physiological and morphological plant traits across a set of representative genotypes in A. thaliana, A. lyrata and A. halleri was quantified. Transcriptome changes to soil dry-down were further monitored.Key ResultsThe analysis of trait covariation demonstrates that the three species differ in the strategies they deploy to respond to drought stress. Arabidopsis thaliana showed a drought avoidance reaction but failed to survive wilting. Arabidopsis lyrata efficiently combined avoidance and tolerance mechanisms. In contrast, A. halleri showed some degree of tolerance to wilting but it did not seem to protect itself from the stress imposed by drought. Transcriptome data collected just before plant wilting and after recovery corroborated the phenotypic analysis, with A. lyrata and A. halleri showing a stronger activation of recovery- and stress-related genes, respectively.ConclusionsThe response of the three Arabidopsis species to soil dry-down reveals that they have evolved distinct strategies to face drought stress. These strategic differences are in agreement with the distinct ecological priorities of the stress-tolerant A. lyrata, the competitive A. halleri and the ruderal A. thaliana.

Methane Emissions and Rice Yield in Rainfed Bed System (Surjan) as Affected by Manure and Zeolite Treatment

Rainfed area as one of rice production areas is facing drought due to climate change. Management of rainfed area is needed due to its contribution, in addition to the production of rice, in producing methane as a contributor to greenhouse gas emission. This research aimed to investigate the methane emission status and yield from rainfed rice system with manure and zeolite treatment on the bed system (surjan). The doses of manure were 5, 15 and 30 tons/ha and the zeolite was 1 and 2.5 tons/ha. The result s howed that all treatment had no significant effect on daily methane fluxe and grain yield in surjan system. However, the combination of manure at 15 tons/ha with zeolite at 1 ton/ha promoted higher methane emissions (63.43 kg CH 4 /ha/season). In addition, the combination treatment of manure at 5 tons/ha with zeolite at 2.5 tons/ha contributed to obtain higher grain yield (6.9 tons/ha).

Analysis of Factors Triggering Distress Migration in Bundelkhand Region of Central In

Bundelkhand region of central India, a major drought affected area of the country is associated to high level of rural to urban migration. The present study was conducted to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the migrants and to examine the key factors triggering migration decision of agriculture practicing households. The region was facing drought for the fourth consecutive period which had left the population, mainly dependent on agricultural income, out of option than migration. The analysis of socio-economic profile of migrants showed that majority of the migrants were between the age group of 20–39 (70.1%) and the education level was secondary (54.8%). The population of female migrants was comparatively low, as many of them followed their family to the migrating place after marriage. Majority of the migrants (81.73%) were engaged in unskilled manual labour activities like construction works in destination cities. The various factors identified triggering migration decision were associated to livelihood security, climatic, agricultural, institutional and socio-cultural factors.

Aquaponics in South Africa: Results of a national survey

Aquaponic system is a productive, innovative and sustainable fish and vegetable production system that could contribute to the needed innovation in agriculture in the face of drought, soil pollution and climate change. Aquaponics are still an emerging practice worldwide, but particularly in South Africa. This study was conducted in 2016 using an online survey questionnaire to collect information about the types of systems used, the management and distribution of aquaponics in South Africa. A total of 44 responses were captured within three months. The most commonly raised fish was tilapia (82%). The most commonly raised plants were leafy vegetables (75%). Since aquaponics is still not practiced by many and aquaponics systems are mostly small, aquaponics in South Africa can be considered an emerging practice. Most of the current aquaponics practitioners have limited aquaponics production knowledge. We therefore conclude that attention should be paid to raising the awareness about the potential of aquaponics, and raising the technological knowledge of aquaponics operators to increase the number of aquaponics operations and to increase the total amount of food produced in and with aquaponics.

Evaluating and managing environmental water regimes in a water‐scarce and uncertain future

Abstract While the number of environmental flows and water science programmes continues to grow across the globe, there remains a critical need to better balance water availability in support of human and ecological needs and to recognise the environment as a legitimate user of water. In water‐stressed areas, this recognition has resulted in friction between water users in the public and private sectors. An opportunity exists for practitioners to be on the forefront of the science determining best practices for supporting environmental water regimes. This Special Issue brings together a collection of environmental flows science and water management papers organised around three major themes: (1) method development and testing; (2) application case studies; and (3) efficacy evaluation. Contents of this Special Issue are intended to foster collaboration and broaden transferability of the information, technical tools, models and methods needed to support environmental water management programmes. The technical sophistication of methods and modelling tools, while important to the advancement of environmental water science, may come at the expense of easily interpretable outcomes that positively influence management decisions. Researchers need to be more proactive in translating the results of advanced modelling methodologies into user‐friendly tools and methods. This will allow stakeholders and water managers to proactively test alternative water allocation scenarios to help address growing human water demands in the face of droughts and changes in climatic patterns. The application of environmental flows science and water management strategies cannot be done in isolation. Implementation involves a complex decision‐making process that integrates ecological, hydrologic and social science across diverse multifaceted governance systems and requires active stakeholder involvement. Scientists and managers must strengthen partnerships at multiple scales to develop sensible science investment strategies so that collective knowledge can be translated into wise environmental water management decisions.