Assessment of the Immediate Impacts of the 2013–2014 Drought on Ecosystems of the California Central Coast

Potter, Christopher

doi:10.3398/064.075.0202

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…As one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, the recent drought unquestionably has had large impacts on California [ Potter , ; Keppen and Dutcher , ], especially on its agriculture sector [ Howitt et al , ]. On an average year, the agricultural industry here consumes about 80% of the state water supply, 60% of which comes from surface water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of temperature and precipitation anomalies to the California drought during 2012–2015

Liu

Apps

Arcand

et al. 2017

Geophysical Research Letters

108

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The recent multiyear drought over California was characterized by large precipitation deficits and abnormally high temperatures during both wet and dry seasons. This study investigates and quantifies the contributions of precipitation and temperature anomalies to the development of the multiyear drought with a set of modeling experiments where the anomalies are either removed or randomly replaced with other historical observations. The study reveals that precipitation deficits have been largely responsible for producing the extreme agricultural drought (i.e., large soil moisture deficits) while warmer temperatures have only marginally intensified the drought. However, the warmer temperatures over the high‐elevation areas during the wet season have contributed equally or more than the precipitation deficits to the reduction of snowpack. The interplay between temperature and precipitation anomalies in space and time also appears to be important for the drought development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of temperature and precipitation anomalies to the California drought during 2012–2015

Liu

Apps

Arcand

et al. 2017

Geophysical Research Letters

108

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“…Drought conditions also put excessive stresses on the landscape, particularly forests with little snowpack, and resulted in massive forest die-off (Asner et al 2016) and severe wildfire seasons . Rangelands had little forage and drinking water for cattle resulting in ranching being the most impacted agricultural sector (Potter 2015). The range of hydrologic conditions across rangelands and watersheds in California is very large, dictated by very local differences in climate, energy loading, vegetation, soils, and underlying geology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing drought in California: new drought indices and scenario-testing in support of resource management

Flint

Mendoza

et al. 2018

Ecol Process

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Introduction: California's recent drought (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016) has implications throughout the state for natural resource management and adaptation planning and has generated many discussions about drought characterization and recovery. This study characterizes drought conditions with two indices describing deficits in natural water supply and increases in landscape stress developed on the basis of water balance modeling, at a fine spatial scale to assess the variation in conditions across the entire state, and provides an in-depth evaluation for the Russian River basin in northern California to address local resource management by developing extreme drought scenarios for consideration in planning and adaptation. Methods: We employed the USGS Basin Characterization Model to characterize drought on the basis of water supply (a measure of recharge plus runoff) and landscape stress (climatic water deficit). These were applied to the state and to the Russian River basin where antecedent soil moisture conditions were evaluated and extreme drought scenarios were developed and run through a water management and reservoir operations model to further explore impacts on water management. Results: Drought indices indicated that as of the end of water year 2016 when reservoirs were full, additional water supply and landscape replenishment of up to three average years of precipitation in some locations was needed to return to normal conditions. Antecedent soil conditions in the Russian River were determined to contribute to very different water supply results for different years and were necessary to understand to anticipate proper watershed response to climate. Extreme drought scenarios manifested very different kinds of drought and recovery and characterization helps to guide the management response to drought. Conclusions: These scenarios and indices illustrate how droughts differ with regard to water supply and landscape stress and how long warm droughts recover much more slowly than short very dry droughts due to the depletion of water in the soil and unsaturated zone that require filling before runoff can occur. Recognition of ongoing conditions and likelihood of recovery provides tools and information for a range of resource managers to cope with drought conditions.

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“…The vegetation response to the 2012-2014 California drought has been studied using various optical remote sensing approaches, but not microwave data. Potter [31] used Landsat-derived NDWI and NDVI to document vegetation changes during 2013 and 2014 along a 100-km transect of the central California coast. Grasslands showed greater drought stress than shrublands or forests.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation Response to the 2012–2014 California Drought from GPS and Optical Measurements

2018

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We compare microwave GPS and optical-based remote sensing observations of the vegetation response to a recent drought in California, USA. The microwave data are based on reflected GPS signals that were collected by a geodetic network. These data are sensitive to temporal variations in vegetation water content and are made available via the Normalized Microwave Reflection Index (NMRI). NMRI data are complementary to information of plant greenness provided by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). NMRI data from 146 sites in California are compared to collocated NDVI observations, over the interval of 2007-2016. This period includes a severe, three-year drought (2012)(2013)(2014). We quantify the seasonal variations in vegetation state by calculating a series of phenology metrics at each site, using both NMRI and NDVI. We examine how the phenology metrics vary from year-to-year, as related to the observed fluctuations in accumulated precipitation. The amplitude of seasonal vegetation growth exhibits the greatest sensitivity to prior accumulated precipitation. Above-normal precipitation from 4 to 12 months before peak growth yields a stronger seasonal growth pulse, and vice versa. The amplitude of seasonal growth, as determined from NDVI, varies linearly with precipitation during dry years, but is largely insensitive to precipitation amount in years with above-normal precipitation. In contrast, the amplitude of seasonal growth from NMRI varies approximately linearly with precipitation across the entire range of conditions observed. The length of season is positively correlated with prior accumulated precipitation, more strongly with NDVI than NMRI. The recovery from drought was similar for a one-year ( 2007) and the more severe three-year drought (2012)(2013)(2014). In both cases, the amplitude of growth returned to typical values in the first year with near-normal precipitation. Growing season length, only based on NDVI, was greatly reduced in 2014, the driest and final year of the three-year California drought.

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Assessment of the Immediate Impacts of the 2013–2014 Drought on Ecosystems of the California Central Coast

Cited by 8 publications

References 21 publications

Contribution of temperature and precipitation anomalies to the California drought during 2012–2015

Contribution of temperature and precipitation anomalies to the California drought during 2012–2015

Characterizing drought in California: new drought indices and scenario-testing in support of resource management

Vegetation Response to the 2012–2014 California Drought from GPS and Optical Measurements

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