Abstract
AbstractForecast increases in the frequency, intensity, and duration of droughts with climate change may have extreme and extensive ecological consequences. There are currently hundreds of published, ongoing, and new drought experiments worldwide aimed to assess ecological sensitivity to drought and identify the mechanisms governing resistance and resilience. To date, the results from these experiments have varied widely, and thus, patterns of drought sensitivities and the underlying mechanisms have been difficult to discern. Here we examined 89 published drought experiments, along with their associated historical precipitation records to (1) identify where and how drought experiments have been imposed, (2) determine the extremity of drought treatments in the context of historical climate, and (3) assess the influence of ambient precipitation variability on the magnitude of drought experiments. In general, drought experiments were most common in water‐limited ecosystems, such as grasslands, and were often short‐term, as 80% were 1–4 yr in duration. When placed in a historical context, the majority of drought experiments imposed extreme drought, with 61% below the 5th, and 43% below the 1st percentile of the 50‐yr annual precipitation distribution. We also determined that interannual precipitation variability had a large and potentially underappreciated effect on the magnitude of drought treatments due to the co‐varying nature of control and drought precipitation inputs. Thus, detecting significant ecological effects in drought experiments is strongly influenced by the interaction between experimental drought magnitude, precipitation variability, and key ecological thresholds. The patterns that emerged from this study have important implications for the design and interpretation of drought experiments and also highlight critical gaps in our understanding of the ecological effects of drought.
Highlights
Rising temperatures and changes in precipitation due to climate change are projected to increase the frequency, severity, and duration of droughts (Dai 2012, Trenberth 2012, IPCC 2013, Cook et al 2015)
A key question that emerges is: Does the variability in ecological responses to drought represent fundamental differences in drought sensitivities across ecosystems, or does it reflect the magnitude of the drought treatment imposed? In this study, we address the latter part of the question by focusing on how control and drought treatments are affected by the interaction between experimental drought magnitude and variability in ambient precipitation amount
Location of drought experiments Of the 89 published drought experiments, the vast majority were located in North America (n = 43) and Europe (n = 33), with a few in Experimental drought simulations In order to examine the role of interannual precipitation variability on drought experiments with a greater temporal resolution, we ran a series of drought simulations at three sites under three different
Summary
Rising temperatures and changes in precipitation due to climate change are projected to increase the frequency, severity, and duration of droughts (Dai 2012, Trenberth 2012, IPCC 2013, Cook et al 2015) Such alterations in water availability can have large and potentially longlasting ecological consequences, depending on the extremity of the climatic conditions and the resistance and resilience of the ecosystem (Smith 2011, Hoover et al 2014). In 2002, Yahdjian and Sala designed a rainout shelter capable of intercepting different amounts of rainfall, or a precipitation reduction shelter in which a shelter covered with strips of clear plastic gutters removed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
