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Ecosystem resilience despite large-scale altered hydroclimatic conditions.
Guillermo E Ponce Campos1, M Susan Moran, Alfredo Huete
1USDA ARS Southwest Watershed Research, Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA. geponce@gmail.com
Nature
|January 22, 2013
Summary
Ecosystems show resilience to drought, maintaining water-use efficiency (WUE(e)) even in drier conditions. This biome-scale capacity to tolerate low precipitation is key for predicting future climate change impacts.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Climate Science
- Biogeochemistry
Background:
- Climate change is increasing drought frequency and duration, leading to significant warming and altered hydroclimatic conditions globally.
- Recent large-scale, warm droughts have impacted terrestrial ecosystems, carbon balance, and food security across continents.
Observation:
- This study compared ecosystem responses to hydroclimatic shifts between 1975-1998 and 2000-2009.
- Above-ground net primary production and ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE(e)) were analyzed across diverse biomes in both hemispheres.
Findings:
- A consistent ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE(e)) was observed across biomes, highlighting sensitivity to water availability.
- Higher WUE(e) in drier years increased with drought severity, reaching a maximum across all biomes.
- Ecosystems demonstrated resilience to interannual drought variability, tolerating low precipitation and recovering with favorable water balance.
Implications:
- The findings provide a decadal-scale conceptual model for ecosystem properties under altered hydroclimatic conditions.
- Understanding thresholds for ecosystem resilience and maximum WUE(e) is crucial for predicting land-surface changes in aridifying regions.
- Water-limited grasslands may be particularly vulnerable to shifts in hydroclimatic conditions.
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