Drylands are highly vulnerable to climate and land use changes: what ecosystem changes are in store? Active
Improper land use during drought has been a major driver of land degradation in drylands globally, especially in the western U.S. Increasing aridity in western U.S. drylands under future climates will exacerbate risks associated with drought and land use decisions. This project provides critical observational, experimental, and modelling evidence to support our DOI partners with decision processes aimed and avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating undesired changes due to drought and land change.
Statement of Problem:
Drylands comprise approximately 35% of Earth’s terrestrial biomes, with over 1 billion people depending on these landscapes for their livelihoods. In the U.S., drylands comprise about 40% of the landmass and 83% of Department of Interior managed lands (excluding Alaska). A substantial rise in temperature (~ 6°C) and changes in precipitation are predicted for these regions. These water-limited ecosystems are often characterized by low resilience to warming and drying, and therefore small environmental changes can have vast and unexpected ecological consequences. With large predicted shrifts in climate for dryland regions, impacts to wildlife, livestock, and human populations dependent on these resources are likely to be profound and widespread. As a result, drylands have been identified as one of three regions that will be most vulnerable to climate change by both IPCC and the USGS Climate Change team.
Why this Research is Important:
New understanding of climate change impacts on ecosystem processes produced by this effort are informing DOI and other federal, state, tribal, and private land management decisions aimed at mitigating effects of land change and increased aridity. More specifically, new understanding regarding which plant species are likely to survive under future conditions can guide the selection of appropriate plant stock for restoration as well as enable us to predict the quality of available forage and habitat. By providing information to help distinguish ecosystem change due to climate alone from those changes attributable to land use, the results of this work are helping managers of complex, multi-use landscapes identify new management solutions. Our studies focus on the Colorado Plateau region, which covers 195,000 km2 of northern AZ, northwest NM, western CO, and southern UT. However, our findings will apply to a much larger area of the western U.S., in that many areas support the same plant species and have similar soils and climate.
Objective(s):
This project is addressing the following questions:
- What are the primary drivers of historic vegetation change in drylands of the western US? How is resilience these ecosystems mediated by biological versus physical processes?
- How will plants and soils in dryland communities respond to long-term, moderate reductions in precipitation?
- How sensitive are dryland grassland communities to extreme drought? How does sensitivity change with the seasonality of drought (cold versus warm season)? How do various drought scenarios alter grass-shrub dynamics in grasslands?
- How do dryland grassland communities to respond to combinations of drought, disturbance, and grazing? If grazing is deleterious, can altered timing of grazing help mitigate these impacts?
Methods:
This project is addressing gaps in our understanding of how vegetation and soils will respond to future climates, land use, and the interactions between these factors. We will build this understanding using a several approaches, including:
- Surveys of vegetation and soils fertility across lands with differing in land use history (grazing by domestic livestock);
- Experiments in which we manipulate precipitation to simulate future droughts;
- Using ecosystem simulation modelling; and
- Experiments where we simulate the interaction of grazing and drought.
Below are publications associated with this project.
Controls on distribution patterns of biological soil crusts at micro- to global scales
Not all droughts are created equal: The impacts of interannual drought pattern and magnitude on grassland carbon cycling
Conditional vulnerability of plant diversity to atmospheric nitrogen deposition across the United States
Rangeland monitoring reveals long-term plant responses to precipitation and grazing at the landscape scale
Soil moisture response to experimentally altered snowmelt timing is mediated by soil, vegetation, and regional climate patterns
On the prediction of threshold friction velocity of wind erosion using soil reflectance spectroscopy
Observations of net soil exchange of CO2 in a dryland show experimental warming increases carbon losses in biocrust soils
Climate change and physical disturbance manipulations result in distinct biological soil crust communities
Desert grassland responses to climate and soil moisture suggest divergent vulnerabilities across the southwestern United States
Pulse-drought atop press-drought: unexpected plant responses and implications for dryland ecosystems
Regional variability in dust-on-snow processes and impacts in the Upper Colorado River Basin
Effects of ungulate disturbance and weather variation on Pediocactus winkleri: Insights from long-term monitoring
- Overview
Improper land use during drought has been a major driver of land degradation in drylands globally, especially in the western U.S. Increasing aridity in western U.S. drylands under future climates will exacerbate risks associated with drought and land use decisions. This project provides critical observational, experimental, and modelling evidence to support our DOI partners with decision processes aimed and avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating undesired changes due to drought and land change.
Statement of Problem:
Drylands comprise approximately 35% of Earth’s terrestrial biomes, with over 1 billion people depending on these landscapes for their livelihoods. In the U.S., drylands comprise about 40% of the landmass and 83% of Department of Interior managed lands (excluding Alaska). A substantial rise in temperature (~ 6°C) and changes in precipitation are predicted for these regions. These water-limited ecosystems are often characterized by low resilience to warming and drying, and therefore small environmental changes can have vast and unexpected ecological consequences. With large predicted shrifts in climate for dryland regions, impacts to wildlife, livestock, and human populations dependent on these resources are likely to be profound and widespread. As a result, drylands have been identified as one of three regions that will be most vulnerable to climate change by both IPCC and the USGS Climate Change team.
Why this Research is Important:
New understanding of climate change impacts on ecosystem processes produced by this effort are informing DOI and other federal, state, tribal, and private land management decisions aimed at mitigating effects of land change and increased aridity. More specifically, new understanding regarding which plant species are likely to survive under future conditions can guide the selection of appropriate plant stock for restoration as well as enable us to predict the quality of available forage and habitat. By providing information to help distinguish ecosystem change due to climate alone from those changes attributable to land use, the results of this work are helping managers of complex, multi-use landscapes identify new management solutions. Our studies focus on the Colorado Plateau region, which covers 195,000 km2 of northern AZ, northwest NM, western CO, and southern UT. However, our findings will apply to a much larger area of the western U.S., in that many areas support the same plant species and have similar soils and climate.
Objective(s):
This project is addressing the following questions:
- What are the primary drivers of historic vegetation change in drylands of the western US? How is resilience these ecosystems mediated by biological versus physical processes?
- How will plants and soils in dryland communities respond to long-term, moderate reductions in precipitation?
- How sensitive are dryland grassland communities to extreme drought? How does sensitivity change with the seasonality of drought (cold versus warm season)? How do various drought scenarios alter grass-shrub dynamics in grasslands?
- How do dryland grassland communities to respond to combinations of drought, disturbance, and grazing? If grazing is deleterious, can altered timing of grazing help mitigate these impacts?
Methods:
This project is addressing gaps in our understanding of how vegetation and soils will respond to future climates, land use, and the interactions between these factors. We will build this understanding using a several approaches, including:
- Surveys of vegetation and soils fertility across lands with differing in land use history (grazing by domestic livestock);
- Experiments in which we manipulate precipitation to simulate future droughts;
- Using ecosystem simulation modelling; and
- Experiments where we simulate the interaction of grazing and drought.
- Data
Filter Total Items: 14No Result Found
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Filter Total Items: 62Controls on distribution patterns of biological soil crusts at micro- to global scales
Biocrusts are heterogeneously distributed in space. The drivers of their distribution patterns vary depending on the spatial scale of observation. Globally, there are about 1337 cyanobacteria, algae, bryophyte, and lichen species reported as components of biocrusts. At the broadest biogeographical scales, the degree and age of isolation of land masses may dictate distribution of these species andAuthorsJayne Belnap, Otto L. Lange, Matthew A. Bowker, Burkhard Buedel, Christophe Sannier, Nicole Pietrasiak, David Eldridge, Victor Rivera AguilarNot all droughts are created equal: The impacts of interannual drought pattern and magnitude on grassland carbon cycling
Climate extremes, such as drought, may have immediate and potentially prolonged effects on carbon cycling. Grasslands store approximately one-third of all terrestrial carbon and may become carbon sources during droughts. However, the magnitude and duration of drought-induced disruptions to the carbon cycle, as well as the mechanisms responsible, remain poorly understood. Over the next century, gloAuthorsDavid L. Hoover, Brendan M. RogersConditional vulnerability of plant diversity to atmospheric nitrogen deposition across the United States
Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has been shown to decrease plant species richness along regional deposition gradients in Europe and in experimental manipulations. However, the general response of species richness to N deposition across different vegetation types, soil conditions, and climates remains largely unknown even though responses may be contingent on these environmental factors. We assAuthorsSamuel M. Simkin, Edith B. Allen, William D. Bowman, Christopher L. Clark, Jayne Belnap, Matthew L. Brooks, Brian S. Cade, Scott L. Collins, Linda H. Geiser, Frank S. Gilliam, Sarah E. Jovan, Linda H. Pardo, Bethany K. Schulz, Carly J. Stevens, Katharine N. Suding, Heather L. Throop, Donald M. WallerRangeland monitoring reveals long-term plant responses to precipitation and grazing at the landscape scale
Managers of rangeland ecosystems require methods to track the condition of natural resources over large areas and long periods of time as they confront climate change and land use intensification. We demonstrate how rangeland monitoring results can be synthesized using ecological site concepts to understand how climate, site factors, and management actions affect long-term vegetation dynamics at tAuthorsSeth M. Munson, Michael C. Duniway, Jamin K. JohansonSoil moisture response to experimentally altered snowmelt timing is mediated by soil, vegetation, and regional climate patterns
Soil moisture in seasonally snow-covered environments fluctuates seasonally between wet and dry states. Climate warming is advancing the onset of spring snowmelt and may lengthen the summer-dry state and ultimately cause drier soil conditions. The magnitude of either response may vary across elevation and vegetation types. We situated our study at the lower boundary of persistent snow cover and thAuthorsLafe G Conner, Richard A. Gill, Jayne BelnapOn the prediction of threshold friction velocity of wind erosion using soil reflectance spectroscopy
Current approaches to estimate threshold friction velocity (TFV) of soil particle movement, including both experimental and empirical methods, suffer from various disadvantages, and they are particularly not effective to estimate TFVs at regional to global scales. Reflectance spectroscopy has been widely used to obtain TFV-related soil properties (e.g., moisture, texture, crust, etc.), however, noAuthorsJunran Li, Cody B. Flagg, Gregory S. Okin, Thomas H. Painter, Kebonye Dintwe, Jayne BelnapObservations of net soil exchange of CO2 in a dryland show experimental warming increases carbon losses in biocrust soils
Many arid and semiarid ecosystems have soils covered with well-developed biological soil crust communities (biocrusts) made up of mosses, lichens, cyanobacteria, and heterotrophs living at the soil surface. These communities are a fundamental component of dryland ecosystems, and are critical to dryland carbon (C) cycling. To examine the effects of warming temperatures on soil C balance in a drylanAuthorsAnthony N. Darrouzet-Nardi, Sasha C. Reed, Edmund E. Grote, Jayne BelnapClimate change and physical disturbance manipulations result in distinct biological soil crust communities
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) colonize plant interspaces in many drylands and are critical to soil nutrient cycling. Multiple climate change and land use factors have been shown to detrimentally impact biocrusts on a macroscopic (i.e., visual) scale. However, the impact of these perturbations on the bacterial components of the biocrusts remain poorly understood. We employed multiple long-termAuthorsBlaire Steven, Cheryl R. Kuske, La Verne Gallegos-Graves, Sasha C. Reed, Jayne BelnapDesert grassland responses to climate and soil moisture suggest divergent vulnerabilities across the southwestern United States
Climate change predictions include warming and drying trends, which are expected to be particularly pronounced in the southwestern United States. In this region, grassland dynamics are tightly linked to available moisture, yet it has proven difficult to resolve what aspects of climate drive vegetation change. In part, this is because it is unclear how heterogeneity in soils affects plant responsesAuthorsJennifer Gremer, John B. Bradford, Seth M. Munson, Michael C. DuniwayPulse-drought atop press-drought: unexpected plant responses and implications for dryland ecosystems
In drylands, climate change is predicted to cause chronic reductions in water availability (press-droughts) through reduced precipitation and increased temperatures as well as increase the frequency and intensity of short-term extreme droughts (pulse-droughts). These changes in precipitation patterns may have profound ecosystem effects, depending on the sensitivities of the dominant plant functionAuthorsDavid L. Hoover, Michael C. Duniway, Jayne BelnapRegional variability in dust-on-snow processes and impacts in the Upper Colorado River Basin
Dust deposition onto mountain snow cover in the Upper Colorado River Basin frequently occurs in the spring when wind speeds and dust emission peaks on the nearby Colorado Plateau. Dust loading has increased since the intensive settlement in the western USA in the mid 1880s. The effects of dust-on-snow have been well studied at Senator Beck Basin Study Area (SBBSA) in the San Juan Mountains, CO, thAuthorsS. McKenzie Skiles, Thomas H. Painter, Jayne Belnap, Lacey Holland, Richard L. Reynolds, Harland L. Goldstein, J. LinEffects of ungulate disturbance and weather variation on Pediocactus winkleri: Insights from long-term monitoring
Population dynamics and effects of large ungulate disturbances on Winkler cactus (Pediocactus winkleri K.D. Heil) were documented annually over a 20-year time span at one plot within Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. This cactus species was federally listed as threatened in 1998. The study began in 1995 to gain a better understanding of life history aspects and threats to this species. Data were cAuthorsDeborah J. Clark, Thomas O. Clark, Michael C. Duniway, Cody B. Flagg