A global study organized and led by Colorado State University scientists shows that the effects of extreme drought—which is expected to increase in frequency with climate change—has been greatly underestimated for grasslands and shrublands.
It is the first time an experiment this extensive has been undertaken to generate a baseline understanding of the potential losses of plant productivity in these vital ecosystems.
Melinda Smith, a professor in the Department of Biology at CSU, led the study and is the first author on the paper. She said the observed reduction in a key carbon cycle process after a single 1-in-100-year drought event greatly exceeds previously reported losses for grasslands and shrublands.
“We were able to determine that the loss of aboveground plant growth—a key measure of ecosystem function—was 60% greater when short-term drought was extreme compared to the less severe droughts that have been more commonly experienced historically,” she said. “Past studies suffered from methodological differences when estimating the impacts of extreme drought in natural ecosystems, but our standardized, distributed approach here addressed that problem.”
Smith added that the project also showcases the variability in drought response across grassland and shrubland ecosystems—offering both a review of the global impacts of climate change as well as a glimpse into which areas will be most stressed or most resilient in the coming years.
2024-01-08 16:00:04
Link from phys.org rnrn