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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #376920
Research Project: Science and Technologies for the Sustainable Management of Western Rangeland Systems

Location: Range Management Research

Title: A multi-site synthesis of impacts of multi-year extreme events on dryland ecosystem resilience

Author
item Hudson, Amy
item Peters, Debra
item AVOLIO, MEGHAN - Johns Hopkins University
item BLAIR, JOHN - Kansas State University
item CHILDERS, DANIEL - Arizona State University
item COLLINS, SCOTT - University Of New Mexico
item DORAN, PETER - Louisiana State University
item EVANS, SARAH - Colorado State University
item GOOSEFF, MICHAEL - University Of Colorado
item GRIMM, NANCY - Arizona State University

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2020
Publication Date: 12/1/2020
Citation: Hudson, A.J., Peters, D.C., Avolio, M.L., Blair, J., Childers, D.L., Collins, S.L., Doran, P.T., Evans, S.E., Gooseff, M.N., Grimm, N.B. 2020. A multi-site synthesis of impacts of multi-year extreme events on dryland ecosystem resilience. American Geophysical Union. Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Long-term ecological research is uniquely poised to examine the impacts of multi-year extreme events from climate and other environmental drivers on ecosystem resilience. For 8 long-term research (LTER) sites in the midwestern US (CDR, KBS, KNZ), southwestern US (CAP, JRN, SEV) and polar regions (ARC and MCM), representing grassland, cropland, desert, urban, and tundra ecosystems, we used long-term data to determine: 1- how climate drivers and physical processes have changed over the past century, with a focus on multi-year, extreme events, 2- how these diverse dryland ecosystems have responded to these extreme events, and 3- what the implications of these changes and responses are to ecosystem resilience and services. We found that regions surrounding most sites are experiencing more positive temperature extremes in the last 20 years than over the remaining 65-year record. Temperature interacts with precipitation regimes to influence changes in water availability. For example, the southwestern US is experiencing, on-average, drier soil conditions with sequences of high precipitation years following two decades of wetter conditions, while the midwestern US has experienced wetter soil conditions- with intermittent dry spells- over the past four decades. Effects of extreme events and their interactions were observed (or experimentally designed) at sites as heat waves (CAP, MCM), droughts (JRN, KBS, KNZ, SEV), fire (ARC, CDR, SEV), glacier melt (MCM), flooding (CAP, KNZ, JRN, SEV), dust events (CAP, JRN) , and cloud cover changes (MCM). Ecosystem response trajectories leveled off, shifted, or reversed based on the time since event (legacies), and different ecosystems and processes integrated climate-event interactions differently. Future trajectories in ecosystem resilience are expected to depend on these multi-year extreme events interacting with long-term climate variability, and trends and ecosystem properties at the sites.