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The expansion of irrigated agriculture has increased global crop production but resulted in widespread stress to freshwater resources. Ensuring that increases in irrigated production only occur in places where water is relatively abundant is a key objective of sustainable agriculture, and knowledge of how irrigated land has evolved is important for measuring progress towards water sustainability. Yet a spatially detailed understanding of the evolution of global area equipped for irrigation (AEI) is missing. Here we utilize the latest sub-national irrigation statistics (covering 17298 administrative units) from various official sources to develop a gridded (5 arc-min resolution) global product of AEI for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. We find that AEI increased by 11% from 2000 (297 Mha) to 2015 (330 Mha) with locations of both substantial expansion (e.g., northwest India, northeast China) and decline (e.g., Russia). Combining these outputs with information on green (i.e., rainfall) and blue (i.e., surface and ground) water stress, we also examine to what extent irrigation has expanded unsustainably (i.e., in places already experiencing water stress). We find that more than half (52%) of irrigation expansion has taken place in regions that were already water stressed, with India alone accounting for 36% of global unsustainable expansion. These findings provide new insights into the evolving patterns of global irrigation with important implications for global water sustainability and food security. Recommended citation: Mehta, P., Siebert, S., Kummu, M. et al. Half of twenty-first century global irrigation expansion has been in water-stressed regions. Nat Water (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-024-00206-9 Open-access peer reviewed publication available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-024-00206-9 Files G_AEI_*.ASC were produced using the GMIA dataset[https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/iso/f79213a0-88fd-11da-a88f-000d939bc5d8]. Files MEIER_G_AEI_*.ASC were produced using Meier et al. (2018) dataset [https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.884744].

This data package contains data used for an model-data intercomparison originally published in: D. K. Hutchinson, H. K. Coxall, D. J. Lunt, M. Steinthorsdottir, A. M. de Boer, M. Baatsen, A. von der Heydt, M. Huber, A. T. Kennedy-Asser, L. Kunzmann, J.-B. Ladant, C. H. Lear, K. Moraweck, P. N. Pearson, E. Piga, M. J. Pound, U. Salzmann, H. D. Scher, W. P. Sijp, K. K. Śliwińska, P. A. Wilson, and Z. Zhang, 2021: The Eocene-Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model-data comparisons, Climate of the Past, 17, 269-315. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-269-2021 These data are also used in a further model-data intercomparison of Antarctic temperatures: Emily Tibbett, Natalie J Burls, David K. Hutchinson, Sarah J Feakins, (2023), Proxy-Model Comparison for the Eocene-Oligocene Transition in Southern High Latitudes, Paleoceanography and Paleocliamtology, In Review. Pre-print avaiable from: https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.1002/essoar.10511735.2 The package contains surface air temperature and sea surface temperature from an ensemble of model simulations of the Eocene-Oligocene transition. These data are provided at annual and monthly frequency. They are also provided on the original model grid, and an interpolated common grid used for the intercomparison. (The common grid is based on the HadCM3BL model grid.) All data are provided in NETCDF format with self-describing variable names. The name and explanation of the interpolated data files are contained in: table_of_experiments.xlsx Please read that spreadsheet to interpret the filenames, and see Table 2 (p291) of Hutchinson et al (2021) for experiment descriptions. Please also be mindful to cite the original authors of the simulations when using these data, whose work made this dataset possible. The appropriate citations are listed below: Reference DOI link Baatsen et al (2020) https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2573-2020 Goldner et al (2014) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13597 Ladant et al (2014a,b) https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1957-2014 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013PA002593 Hutchinson et al (2018, 2019) https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-789-2018 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11828-z Kennedy et al (2015) https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2014.0419 Zhang et al (2012, 2014) https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-523-2012 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13705 Sijp et al (2009) https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI3003.1

Dynamics of societal material stocks such as buildings and infrastructures and their spatial patterns drive surging resource use and emissions. Building up and maintaining stocks requires large amounts of resources; currently stock-building materials amount to almost 60% of all materials used by humanity. Buildings, infrastructures and machinery shape social practices of production and consumption, thereby creating path dependencies for future resource use. They constitute the physical basis of the spatial organization of most socio-economic activities, for example as mobility networks, urbanization and settlement patterns and various other infrastructures. This dataset features a detailed map of material stocks for the whole of Germany on a 10m grid based on high resolution Earth Observation data (Sentinel-1 + Sentinel-2), crowd-sourced geodata (OSM) and material intensity factors. Temporal extent The map is representative for ca. 2018. Data format Per federal state, the data come in tiles of 30x30km (see shapefile). The projection is EPSG:3035. The images are compressed GeoTiff files (*.tif). There is a mosaic in GDAL Virtual format (*.vrt), which can readily be opened in most Geographic Information Systems. The dataset features area and mass for different street types area and mass for different rail types area and mass for other infrastructure area, volume and mass for different building types Masses are reported as total values, and per material category. Units area in m² height in m volume in m³ mass in t for infrastructure and buildings Further information For further information, please see the publication or contact Helmut Haberl (helmut.haberl@boku.ac.at). A web-visualization of this dataset is available here. Visit our website to learn more about our project MAT_STOCKS - Understanding the Role of Material Stock Patterns for the Transformation to a Sustainable Society. Publication Haberl, H., Wiedenhofer, D., Schug, F., Frantz, D., Virág, D., Plutzar, C., Gruhler, K., Lederer, J., Schiller, G. , Fishman, T., Lanau, M., Gattringer, A., Kemper, T., Liu, G., Tanikawa, H., van der Linden, S., Hostert, P. (accepted): High-resolution maps of material stocks in buildings and infrastructures in Austria and Germany. Environmental Science & Technology Funding This research was primarly funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (MAT_STOCKS, grant agreement No 741950). ML and GL acknowledge funding by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (CityWeight, 6111-00555B), ML thanks the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC; project Multi-Scale, Circular Economic Potential of Non-Residential Building Scale, EP/S029273/1), JL acknowledges funding by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), project ESR17-067, TF acknowledges the Israel Science Foundation grant no. 2706/19.

Description: This meta-data on development and management of community managed small-scale irrigation schemes in Ethiopia is presented in a spreadsheet as a table after reviewing 83 published articles. The dataset contains research focus, data collection and analysis method, spatial scale, irrigation typology, irrigation water sources, source of energy for water conveyance from the source, main research results, scheme management systems, identified problems and provided solutions from each research article when available. The spatial scale was categorized as national, regional, district, basin, watershed or scheme, based on the spatial coverage of the research done. The irrigation typology was categorized as large-scale, medium-scale and small-scale based on the Ethiopian classification. Surface water sources such as river, lake, reservoir and flash flood and ground water sources of wells and springs or a combination of more than one source were mentioned as the water sources for irrigation schemes. The sources of energy for water abstraction were categorized as gravity, pump or a combination of both. Year of irrigation scheme commencement, available irrigation scheme infrastructure, number of beneficiaries (households), and stakeholders in scheme management were also extracted when available in the literature. Spatial coverage: Data was collected from community managed small-scale irrigation schemes located in different parts of Ethiopia. Location of some irrigation schemes (in UTM) is indicated in the dataset spreadsheet.

Plant responses to biotic and abiotic legacies left in soil by preceding plants is known as plant–soil feedback (PSF). PSF is an important mechanism to explain plant community dynamics and plant performance in natural and agricultural systems. However, most PSF studies are short-term and small-scale due to practical constraints for field-scale quantification of PSF effects, yet field experiments are warranted to assess actual PSF effects under less controlled conditions. Here we used unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based optical sensors to test whether PSF effects on plant traits can be quantified remotely. We established a randomized agro-ecological field experiment in which six different cover crop species and species combinations from three different plant families (Poaceae, Fabaceae, Brassicaceae) were grown. The feedback effects on plant traits were tested in oat (Avena sativa) by quantifying the cover crop legacy effects on key plant traits: height, fresh biomass, nitrogen content, and leaf chlorophyll content. Prior to destructive sampling, hyperspectral data were acquired and used for calibration and independent validation of regression models to retrieve plant traits from optical data. Subsequently, for each trait the model with highest precision and accuracy was selected. We used the hyperspectral analyses to predict the directly measured plant height (RMSE = 5.12 cm, R2 = 0.79), chlorophyll content (RMSE = 0.11 g m−2, R2 = 0.80), N-content (RMSE = 1.94 g m−2, R2 = 0.68), and fresh biomass (RMSE = 0.72 kg m−2, R2 = 0.56). Overall the PSF effects of the different cover crop treatments based on the remote sensing data matched the results based on in situ measurements. The average oat canopy was tallest and its leaf chlorophyll content highest in response to legacy of Vicia sativa monocultures (100 cm, 0.95 g m−2, respectively) and in mixture with Raphanus sativus (100 cm, 1.09 g m−2, respectively), while the lowest values (76 cm, 0.41 g m−2, respectively) were found in response to legacy of Lolium perenne monoculture, and intermediate responses to the legacy of the other treatments. We show that PSF effects in the field occur and alter several important plant traits that can be sensed remotely and quantified in a non-destructive way using UAV-based optical sensors; these can be repeated over the growing season to increase temporal resolution. Remote sensing thereby offers great potential for studying PSF effects at field scale and relevant spatial-temporal resolutions which will facilitate the elucidation of the underlying mechanisms. van der Meij et al_Biogeosciences2017_dataThe experimental set-up, treatments, data collection and data analyses are thoroughly described in the Biogeoscience manuscript ‘Remote sensing of plant trait responses to field-based plant-soil feedback using UAV-based optical sensors’ doi:10.5194/bg-2016-452. Therefore we refer to the manuscript for detailed information an here we provide a brief summary to enable readers to follow what the data entail. The data were collected from a 2-year field experiment with plant rotations in a full factorial design. The plant treatments we focused on are legacy effects of the plant treatments (listed below) to the following oat crop. In this oat crop we quantified several plant traits both in situ and via remote sensing by use of UAV and hyperspectral and EGB sensors. The experiment was set-up in five randomized field blocks. We used part of the in situ collected data to parameterize the hyperspectral data based models and we validated these models with the other half of the field plots. Plant treatments Fa= fallow Lp= Lolium perenne Rs= Raphanus sativus Tr= Trifolium repens Vs= Vicia sativa Lp+Tr= 50:50 species mixture (relative to the monoculture seed densities) of the species Lp and Tr Rs+Vs= 50:50 species mixture (relative to the monoculture seed densities) of the species Rs and Vs

We utilize a variety of climate datasets to examine impacts of two mechanisms on precipitation in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) during northern-hemisphere summer. First, surface-pressure gradients draw moist air toward the GHA from the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Congo Basin. Variability of the strength of these gradients strongly influences GHA precipitation totals and accounts for important phenomena such as the 1960s–1980s rainfall decline and devastating 1984 drought. Following the 1980s, precipitation variability became increasingly influenced by the southern tropical Indian Ocean (STIO) region. Within this region, increases in sea-surface temperature, evaporation, and precipitation are linked with increased exports of dry mid-tropospheric air from the STIO region toward the GHA. Convergence of dry air above the GHA reduces local convection and precipitation. It also produces a clockwise circulation response near the ground that reduces moisture transports from the Congo Basin. Because precipitation originating in the Congo Basin has a unique isotopic signature, records of moisture transports from the Congo Basin may be preserved in the isotopic composition of annual tree rings in the Ethiopian Highlands. A negative trend in tree-ring oxygen-18 during the past half century suggests a decline in the proportion of precipitation originating from the Congo Basin. This trend may not be part of a natural cycle that will soon rebound because climate models characterize Indian Ocean warming as a principal signature of greenhouse-gas induced climate change. We therefore expect surface warming in the STIO region to continue to negatively impact GHA precipitation during northern-hemisphere summer.

The Pannonian basin is an integral part of the convergence zone between the Eurasian and Nubian plates characterized by active subductions of oceanic and continental plates, and formation of backarc basins. The first part of this paper presents an overview of the evolution of the Alpine-Mediterranean region in order to understand the large scale crustal and upper mantle processes in and around the Pannonian basin, resulting a collage of terranes of Alpine and Adriatic origin. It will be followed by a summary of the history of sedimentation, volcanism and tectonic activity. As an illustration, three regional cross sections have been prepared on the base of seismic and borehole data. Reviewing current tectonic ideas and models, we come up with a speculative tectonic scenario depicting Alcapa and Tisza-Dacia as orogenic wedges detached from their mantle lithosphere in the Alpine and Adriatic/Dinaric collision zone during the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene. They suffered a dramatic thermal impact leading to crustal melting during extrusion, when these crustal flakes could have been directly superimposed on the asthenosphere in the Carpathian embayment. Since then, the large part of the Pannonian has been cooling and a new mantle lithosphere growing. Geothermal data show that the Pannonian basin with cessation of volcanic activity in the Late Miocene is still very hot and Miocene to Quaternary clastic basin fill, together with karstified Mesozoic carbonates form good geothermal reservoirs of regional extent. In addition to these gravity-driven aquifer systems, a strongly overpressured reservoir can be found below a regional pressure seal in synrift strata and fractured basement rocks. Eventually, we show maps of geothermal installations in the Pannonian basin and suggest that at the present level of knowledge and geophysical surveying it is easy to find additional resources, however proper water management is a critical issue to avoid harmful drawdown of the groundwater table.