By Alice McFarlane

Intense short-term drought is harder on grasslands than previously thought

Jan 17, 2024 | 2:22 PM

A global study is shedding new light on how the increasingly common drought patterns affect ecosystems.

Intense short-term drought driven by climate change is likely to have a much worse effect on the world’s grasslands than previously thought, according to University of Alberta (U of A) researchers involved in an international study.

Researchers replicated drought conditions on grasslands and shrublands for one year at locations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. This resulted in a 60 per cent greater loss in plant growth, compared with more common historical droughts.

The grassland and shrubland ecosystems often have low and variable rainfall, making them vulnerable to climate change. At the same time, they store more than 30 per cent of the world’s carbon stocks.

Cameron Carlyle is one of five U of A co-authors on the study and is also a rangeland ecologist in the faculty of agricultural, life and environmental sciences.

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He said the groundbreaking collective study, conducted by more than 170 researchers, is the first to use a standardized experiment worldwide to provide a big-picture projection of intense drought.

“What the finding tells us is that we have underestimated the impacts of short-term extreme drought on grassland systems,” Carlyle said.

The finding is troublesome because short-term droughts — a year or less in duration — are becoming more common around the globe.

“That is concerning because grassland plants drive important ecosystem services we depend on, like carbon sequestration,” he said.

Besides sequestering less carbon, the grasslands could produce less forage for livestock producers around the world to feed their cattle, including in Alberta.

Carlyle said the experiment also revealed that drier sites with less diverse plant life in places such as the southern United States and even parts of southern Alberta are likely to be the most vulnerable to extreme drought.

“This shows why maintaining plant biodiversity is important. In a pool of many grasses or flowering plants, there’s likely to be more drought-tolerant species,” he said.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

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