Climate Change and Grasslands: Unexpected Consequences of Extreme Rainfall Patterns
- Resumen
- Climatic variability is an inherent feature of grasslands, with large fluctuations in temperatures combined with precipitation regimes characterized by floods and severe drought occurring within and between years. Global climate models and emerging data indicate that extremes in precipitation regimes are increasing worldwide. Thus, variabilityintemporalpatternsofwateravailability ingrasslands,asdirectlyinfluenced by altered precipitation patterns and indirectly by forecast increases in temperature, will likely increase in the future. Analyses of long-term relationships between grassland productivity and rainfall patterns coupled with experimental manipulations of precipitation inputs have yielded a number of surprising insights regarding how these grasslands will respond to future more extreme climates. Long-term data and experiments have shown that even in relatively mesic grasslands, water availability limits aboveground productivity in most years. Thus, most grasslands will be sensitive to climate change. Sensitivity can be influenced by dormant season soil moisture conditionsas wellas bywithin-seasonprecipitationpatterns.Surprisingly,increasesin precipitation extremes (larger rainfall events with longer intervening dry periods) during thegrowingseasonreducedproductivityinmesic grasslandsbut increasedproductionin semi-arid grasslands. Understanding interactions between rainfall amount and its distribution in grasslands is key to forecasting responses to climate change.
- Autor
- Knapp, Alan K.; Heisler-White, Jana; Smith, Melinda D.
- Palabras Clave
- Pastos, Lluvia, Sector primario, Inundaciones, Cambio climático
- Idioma
- Inglés
- Documentos
- Ponencia ( 11 pag, 246 Kb )
- Presentación
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