Abstract
Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of short-term (~1 y) drought events-the most common duration of drought-globally. Yet the impact of this intensification of drought on ecosystem functioning remains poorly resolved. This is due in part to the widely disparate approaches ecologists have employed to study drought, variation in the severity and duration of drought studied, and differences among ecosystems in vegetation, edaphic and climatic attributes that can mediate drought impacts. To overcome these problems and better identify the factors that modulate drought responses, we used a coordinated distributed experiment to quantify the impact of short-term drought on grassland and shrubland ecosystems. With a standardized approach, we imposed ~a single year of drought at 100 sites on six continents. Here we show that loss of a foundational ecosystem function-aboveground net primary production (ANPP)-was 60% greater at sites that experienced statistically extreme drought (1-in-100-y event) vs. those sites where drought was nominal (historically more common) in magnitude (35% vs. 21%, respectively). This reduction in a key carbon cycle process with a single year of extreme drought greatly exceeds previously reported losses for grasslands and shrublands. Our global experiment also revealed high variability in drought response but that relative reductions in ANPP were greater in drier ecosystems and those with fewer plant species. Overall, our results demonstrate with unprecedented rigor that the global impacts of projected increases in drought severity have been significantly underestimated and that drier and less diverse sites are likely to be most vulnerable to extreme drought.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e2309881120 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Volume | 121 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Jan 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Funding
and -2), and the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Generalitat Valenciana, Project R2D–RESPONSES TO DESERTIFICATION (CIPROM/2021/001); NORWEGIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL MILJØFORSK project 255090 (LandPress: Land use management to ensure ecosystem service delivery under new societal and environmental pressures in heathlands); Australian Research Council (DP150104199; DP190101968, DP210102593); Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University; The Hermon Slade Foundation, Australia; Estonian Research Council (PRG609); Research Station Bad Lauchstädt of the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ, Germany; National Research Foundation Grant CSRU180504326326; and European Commission (GYPWORLD, H2020-MSCA-RISE-777803) and Spanish Government (Querpin PID2021-126927NB-I00). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We are grateful to our IDE collaborators who established and maintained the IDE experiments, collected field data, and shared their data with the IDE community (SI Appendix, Table S1). We thank A. Tatarko for assisting with data management. We also thank the landowners that made the IDE possible. Research support was provided by the following: US National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Coordination Network grant to M.D.S., O.E.S., and R.P.P. (DEB-1354732); US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) Postdoctoral Fellowship grant to K.D.W. (2020-67034-31898); USDA-NIFA Conference Grant to M.D.S. (2020-67019-31757); US Geological Survey (USGS) John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis grant to M.D.S.,S.L.C.,and S.M.M.; USGS grant to M.D.S. (G21AC10266-00); Global Drought Synthesis Group grant to M.D.S., K.D.W., P.W., O.E.S., L.A.G. funded by the NSF Long-term Ecological Research Network Office and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California-Santa Barbara; National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFE0128000; 2021YFD2200405); and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32061123005,32071627,31930078,31971461).Funding for specific experimental sites within this synthesis paper came from the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and the USDAAgricultural Research Service, and the findings and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA determination of policy. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Additional acknowledgements include: NSF Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB DEB 1754106 and 2326482) to Arizona State University and Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program to New Mexico State University (DEB-2025166); Sevilleta and Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Programs (NSF DEB-1655499 ad DEB-1832016); The Institute for the Study of Ecological and Evolutionary Climate Impacts supported sites at University of California-Santa Cruz; USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Physiology of Agricultural Plants Program, Grant #2017-67013-26191; US Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental System Science Program (DE-SC0021980); Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant 031B1067C); European Research Council [ERC Grant agreement 647038 (BIODESERT)] and Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041); USGS Ecosystems Mission Area; CONICET and Universidad de Buenos Aires; Tarbiat Modares University; Department of Biology at Kansas State University and NSF LTER program to Kansas State University (DEB-144048); Austrian Science Fund, Austrian Academy of Sciences and Austrian Research Promotion Agency; Utah Agricultural Experimental Station; Grants from the US NSF Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LTER) including DEB-1234162 and DEB-1831944. Further support was provided by the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve and the University of Minnesota; US Bureau of Land Management (Grant No.L16AS00178); NSERC Discovery Grants to J.F.C., E.G.L., and J.L.W.; a joint strategic grant from the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (now Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) and Emissions Reduction Alberta; CNPq/FAPEG - PELD-PNE (Site 13); DOE Office of Science Early Career Award DE-SC0015898; German Research Foundation (DFG), Grant number DU1688/1-1; iDiv and sDiv, the Synthesis Centre of iDiv (FZT 118, 202548816) and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (Ei 862/29-1), both granted by the DFG; F.M.F. and D.H. received a PhD scholarship by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Ministry of Education, Federal Government of Brazil; Australian Research Council (DP210102593); Texas A&M Savanna Long-Term Research and Education Initiative, Sid-Kyle Foundation, and Sonora Research Station personnel; Staatsbosbeheer (Dutch State Forestry Service) for giving permission to use the protected nature area at Rhijnauwen; Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station; National Research, Development and Innovation Fund (Fund) of Hungary(112576,129068); Cityof Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks Funded Research Program, Garden Club of America, and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Predoctoral Fellowship (Project Accession Number, 1019166); German Federal Government (BMBF) through the SPACES initiative (“Limpopo Living Landscapes” project—grant 01LL1304D; “SALLnet” project—grant 01LL1802C); Post-doctoral fellowship of CAPES–Brasil, Programa CsF; PGI UNS 24/ZB81; Swiss NSF, grants 149862, 185110; Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF15S11420) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan; The Teshio Research Forest of Hokkaido University provided in situ support; German Academic Exchange Programme (DAAD)–SPACES scholarship for short term visit to Germany 2015 to 2017; Australian Research Council (DP150104199; DP190101968); Alexander von HumboldtFoundation(AvH;grant33000351);TheUniversityof Winnipeg,In-kind support provided by Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives Inc.; Catalan Government grants SGR 2921-1333,the Spanish Government grant PID2022-140808NB-I00, and the Fundación Ramón Areces grant CIVP20A6621; PI-IUNRN 40-C-873; the French government IDEX-ISITE initiative 16-IDEX-0001 (CAP 20-25); Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq grant 307689/2014-0) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS grant 17/2551-0001106-6); Post-doctoral fellowship of Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI)CRN3005, which is supported by the US NSF (Grant GEO-1128040); Great Western Woodlands Supersite, part of Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network,and thanks to the Department of Biodiversity,Conservation and Attractions Western Australia for hosting the site and assistance with construction of shelters; US Department of Agriculture–National Institute of Food and Agriculture award 2019-68012-29819; National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, grant number 310340/2016-0); Research Funds for ICBR (1632021023); Israel Ministry of Science and Technology; National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870456); National Research Foundation,Grant No: 116262; DFG Priority Program SPP-1803 “EarthShape: Earth Surface Shaping by Biota” (TI 338/14-1
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| AFRI | |
| Alberta Livestock | |
| Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry | |
| Alexander von HumboldtFoundation | grant33000351 |
| Centre for Integrative Ecology | |
| Cityof Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks Funded Research Program | |
| Department of Biology at Kansas State University | |
| Dutch State Forestry Service | |
| Environment Research and Technology Development Fund | JPMEERF15S11420 |
| GYPWORLD | H2020-MSCA-RISE-777803 |
| German Academic Exchange Programme | |
| German Federal Government | |
| Great Western Woodlands Supersite, part of Australia | 2019-68012-29819 |
| Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research | |
| LTER | DEB-1234162, DEB-1831944 |
| Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives Inc. | |
| NSF Long-Term Ecological Research Program | |
| Physiology of Agricultural Plants Program | 2017-67013-26191 |
| Sevilleta and Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Programs | DEB-1832016, DEB-1655499 |
| Sid-Kyle Foundation | |
| Spanish Government | PID2021-126927NB-I00, PID2022-140808NB-I00 |
| Synthesis Centre of iDiv | 202548816, FZT 118 |
| Teshio Research Forest of Hokkaido University | |
| Texas A&M Savanna Long-Term Research and Education Initiative | |
| USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative | |
| National Science Foundation | DEB-1354732, GEO-1128040 |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE-SC0021980 |
| U.S. Department of Agriculture | |
| U.S. Geological Survey | G21AC10266-00 |
| California Department of Fish and Game | DU1688/1-1 |
| National Institute of Food and Agriculture | 2020-67019-31757, 2020-67034-31898, 1019166 |
| Office of Science | DE-SC0015898 |
| U.S. Bureau of Land Management | |
| University of California, Santa Barbara | |
| Utah Agricultural Experiment Station | |
| University of Minnesota | |
| Kansas State University | DEB-144048 |
| Fundación Ramón Areces | CIVP20A6621, PI-IUNRN 40-C-873, 16-IDEX-0001 |
| New Mexico State University | DEB-2025166 |
| International Association for Identification | CRN3005 |
| Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency | |
| Emissions Reduction Alberta | |
| Engineering Research Centers | 647038 |
| Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | |
| European Commission | |
| European Research Council | |
| Australian Research Council | DP150104199, DP190101968, DP210102593 |
| Hermon Slade Foundation | |
| National Research Foundation | 116262, CSRU180504326326, TI 338/14-1, SPP-1803 |
| Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst | |
| Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft | |
| Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung | 185110, 149862 |
| Deakin University | |
| National Natural Science Foundation of China | 2326482, DEB 1754106, 32061123005,32071627,31930078,31971461 |
| Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften | |
| Eesti Teadusagentuur | PRG609 |
| Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior | |
| Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung | 031B1067C, PGI UNS 24/ZB81, 01LL1802C, 01LL1304D |
| Austrian Science Fund | |
| Ministry of Education | |
| Generalitat de Catalunya | SGR 2921-1333 |
| Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas | |
| Generalitat Valenciana | 255090, CIPROM/2021/001, CIDEGENT/2018/041 |
| Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico | 307689/2014-0, 1632021023, 310340/2016-0 |
| Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover | Ei 862/29-1 |
| Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul | 17/2551-0001106-6 |
| Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung | |
| Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft | |
| Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás | |
| Universidad de Buenos Aires | |
| Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel | 31870456 |
| Tarbiat Modares University | |
| Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research | |
| National Key Research and Development Program of China | 2021YFD2200405, 2022YFE0128000 |
| Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap | 112576,129068 |
Keywords
- climate extreme | Drought-Net | International Drought Experiment | productivity
