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Glossary 487crassulacean acid metabolism – refers to plants that store carbon dioxide at night andthus minimize water loss during the daycyclone – the circulation of winds around a low pressure center, traveling counterclockwisein the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Cyclonesare usually associated with precipitation-generating conditions.decision analysis – a planning tool wherein uncertainties are throughly described anddecision trees can be used to represent different decision pathways and find optimalsolutionsdecoupling – when previously linked phenomena or processes cease to be connected.For example when cold air drains down from mountain ranges and pools in mountainvalleys, the cold air pool can become decoupled from the large-scale atmospheric flow.In such cases, local conditions can differ substantially from regional conditions, which isimportant in assessing the impacts of climate change in mountainous areas.deficit irrigation – irrigation that aims to achieve greater crop output per unit of waterapplied rather than maximizing crop output per acredetection and attribution study – a study to demonstrate the likelihood that an observedchange (as in climate) is occurring (detection), that it is statistically significantlydifferent from what could occur from natural variability, and the most likely cause forthat change (attribution) in terms of a defined level of confidencediapause – a period in which growth or development is suspendeddieback – tree mortality noticeably above usual mortality levels. In the Southwest, diebackoften refers to the death of large numbers of conifer trees, as a result of drought,high temperatures, and insect pest outbreaks.discharge – flow; the volume of water (and suspended sediment, if surface water) thatpasses a given location within a given period of time.disturbance/ecological disturbance – a cause; a physical force, agent, or process, eitherabiotic or biotic, causing a perturbation (which includes stress) in an ecological componentor system; examples are fire (abiotic) and outbreaks of disease (biotic)downscaling – a method providing finer spatial detail of climate model (GCM) results.Often scientists refer to two methods: statistical downscaling, which uses mathematicalrelationships between the GCM data and historical data to adapt GCM projections to localconditions, and dynamical downscaling, in which GCM output is used as input to aregional-scale model which can then merge large-scale climate information from GCMswith local physical controls on climate (such as small mountain ranges).driver – something that creates and fuels activity, or gives force or impetus; for example,energy from the Sun is one driver of the climate systemdry cooling – a cooling system in which air rather than water is used to cool a powerplant’s working fluiddry warming scenario – a climate scenario in which the climate becomes drier (less precipitation)as well as warmerdust flux – The flow of dust particles through a given area within a certain amount of