Publications by authors named "Margarida L R Liberato"

The terrestrial and oceanic origins of precipitation over 50 major river basins worldwide were investigated for the period 1980-2018. For this purpose, we used a Lagrangian approximation that calculates the humidity that results in precipitation from the entire ocean area (ocean component of the precipitation, PLO) and the entire land area (land component, PLT) as well as the sum of both components (Lagrangian precipitation, PL). PL and its components were highly correlated with precipitation over the basins, where PLT accounted for >50 % of the PL in most of them.

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In European forests, extreme wind events associated with severe extratropical cyclones are considered the main abiotic agent of forest vulnerability, leading to high economic losses in forests due to damage caused by the uprooting of trees and trunk breaks. Despite the importance recognized to severe cyclones and associated extreme phenomena, the impact on forest stocks is not always properly reported, leading to underestimation in the perception of losses, with direct consequences on forest governance decisions. This is particularly true in countries where other agents traditionally have a high impact, such as the countries under the influence of the Mediterranean, where wildfire is a recurrent menace with devastating effects.

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Precipitation is significantly influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which is considered to be the most important factor that brings about climate variability. In this study, the asymmetry of the origin of continental precipitation anomalies during El Niño and La Niña events was investigated. An already validated Lagrangian approach was used to determine the proportion of the total Lagrangian precipitation that is of oceanic and terrestrial origin.

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Most of the moisture transported in the globe has its origin in the well-known main moisture sources defined by Gimeno et al. [1]. They provide moisture for precipitation over continental areas in the world in different proportions.

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