A pre-Columbian society in the Amazon developed a sophisticated agricultural engineering system that allowed them to produce maize throughout the year, according to a recent discovery by a team of researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and the Department of Prehistory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, (Spain); the Universities of Exeter, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading and Southampton (UK); the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and Bolivian collaborators. This finding contradicts previous theories that dismissed the possibility of intensive monoculture agriculture in the region.

Grasslands in Asia and North America differ in their responses to drought, according to a new paper in the journal Nature led by faculty at Colorado State University. The findings show that differences in the dominant grasses and lower species diversity in the Eurasian Steppe grasslands may make it more vulnerable to drought than the North American Great Plains.

This study developed an open-source tornado database for the Chinese mainland from 2004-2019, utilizing the Enhanced Fujita scale to assess intensity. It analyzed spatio and temporal distributions characteristics and simulated tornado occurrences using KDE and Monte Carlo methods, revealing seasonal geographic variations. Results highlight higher tornado probabilities in southern provinces during autumn-winter and northern provinces in spring-summer. The database enhances risk assessment capabilities and is available for further research.