Location: Rangeland Resources & Systems Research
Title: The growing threat of multiyear droughtsAuthor
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Hoover, David |
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SMITH, WILLIAM - University Of Arizona |
Submitted to: Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 1/3/2025 Publication Date: 1/17/2025 Citation: Hoover, D.L., Smith, W.K. 2025. The growing threat of multiyear droughts. Science. 387(6731):246-247. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adu7419. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adu7419 Interpretive Summary: Multiyear droughts are growing in size and impact with climate change. Prominent examples of multiyear drought, such as the US Dust Bowl and Australian Millennial drought often gather significant attention due the extent and severity of their impact. Multiyear droughts have the potential to have major effects on vegetation if the exceed critical thresholds of the ecosystems. We currently lack a comprehensive understanding of the patterns and mechanisms that cause major impacts from such events. New remotes sensing tools combined with experiments and research networks may help fill this knowledge gap. Technical Abstract: Droughts have major societal and ecological impacts worldwide, affecting 55 million people and the environment each year through drinking water shortages, crop failures, tree mortality, wildfires, and reduced ecosystem productivity. Future droughts may cause even greater impacts as changes to the hydrological cycle and continued warming with climate change will lead to faster evolving droughts that are more intense and longer lasting. The duration of droughts can range from months to years to decades and with the ecological impacts often growing as the drought progresses in time. Extreme, short-term droughts can have a wide range of impacts depending on drought magnitude and timing, as well as the resistance of the ecosystem. However, as a drought increases in duration to multiyear events, the ecological effects can amplify, as short-term buffering effects that confer drought resistance , may weaken, leading to larger and longer-lasting effects. Multiyear droughts, driven by increasing precipitation anomalies and atmospheric moisture demand are a growing threat to ecosystems. |