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

Liu, Luo; Apps, D.; Arcand, S. E.; Xu, Hui; Pan, Ming; Hoerling, Martin P.

doi:10.1002/2016gl072027

Cited by 106 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The most recent drought, 2012–present, differed from previous ones in several important ways. The drought was more protracted and intense than other recent droughts, driven by a combination of above average temperatures and below average precipitation (Diffenbaugh et al ., ; Luo et al ., ). At the peak of this drought, January–October 2014, PDSI values were lower than all previous records (Fig.…”

Section: Chaparral Mortality During Extreme Drought Eventsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Extensive drought‐associated plant mortality as an agent of type‐conversion in chaparral shrublands

Jacobsen

Pratt

2018

New Phytologist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Contents Summary 498 I. Introduction 498 II. Ecological drought and vegetation type-conversion 499 III. Chaparral mortality during extreme drought events 501 IV. Some species survive drought and others do not 501 V. Recovery potential 502 VI. Conclusions 503 Acknowledgements 503 References 503 SUMMARY: California experienced an intense drought from 2012 to 2015, with southern California remaining in drought to the present. Widespread chaparral shrub mortality was observed during the peak of the drought in 2014. Some species were more impacted than others and shallow-rooted shrub species were the most vulnerable to drought-associated mortality. This type of drought represents what is termed an 'ecological drought' during which an ecosystem is driven beyond thresholds of vulnerability, triggering impairment of ecosystem services and feedbacks that may result in long-term type-conversion of natural communities. The ability of shrublands to recover will depend on the timing, intensity and seasonality of future extreme climate events, post-fire recruitment potential of species with obligate fire-associated recruitment, and interactions with other stresses.

show abstract

Section: Chaparral Mortality During Extreme Drought Eventsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Extensive drought‐associated plant mortality as an agent of type‐conversion in chaparral shrublands

Jacobsen

Pratt

2018

New Phytologist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Droughts of similar or greater magnitude to that of 2012-2015 are likely to become more frequent as increasing temperature reduces snowpack and shifts the runoff peak earlier (Roos 1989;Stewart et al 2005;Berg and Hall 2017;Luo et al 2017). Future use of drought barriers in the Delta therefore seems likely (CDWR 2018), unless the physical configuration of Franks Tract can be altered permanently to limit salt intrusion without the use of a barrier (CNRA 2016;CDFW 2018).…”

Section: Longer-term Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Drought and the Emergency Drought Barrier on the Ecosystem of the California Delta

Kimmerer¹,

Wilkerson²,

Downing³

et al. 2019

SFEWS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 2015, the fourth year of the recent drought, the California Department of Water Resources installed a rock barrier across False River west of Franks Tract to limit salt intrusion into the Delta at minimal cost in freshwater. This Barrier blocked flow in False River, greatly reducing landward salt transport by decreasing tidal dispersion in Franks Tract. We investigated some ecological consequences of the Barrier, examining its effects on water circulation and exchange, on distributions of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and bivalves, and on phytoplankton and zooplankton. The Barrier allowed SAV to spread to areas of Franks Tract that previously had been clear. The distributions of bivalves (Potamocorbula and Corbicula) responded to the changes in salinity at timescales of months for newly settled individuals, to 1 or more years for adults, but the Barrier's effect was confounded with that of the drought. Nutrients, phytoplankton biomass, and a Microcystis abundance index showed little response to the Barrier. Transport of copepods-determined using output from a particle-tracking model-indicated some intermediate-scale reduction with the Barrier in place, but monitoring data did not show a largerscale response in abundance. These studies were conducted separately and synthesized after the fact, and relied on reference conditions that were not always suitable for identifying the Barrier's effects. If barriers are considered in the future, a modest program of investigation should be undertaken that includes adequate replication and ensures that suitable reference conditions are available to allow barrier effects to be distinguished unambiguously from other sources of variability.

show abstract

“…Under moisturelimited conditions, values of PET and ET can diverge where ET may verge to zero while PET can continue to rise with an increase in temperature (Seneviratne et al 2010). In such dry conditions, PET and temperature can therefore have little contribution to the estimation of soil moisture (Luo et al 2017) and lead to drying biases in terms of moisture levels in soil when incorporated into drought indices (Sheffield et al 2012;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Moisture Drought in Europe: A Compound Event of Precipitation and Potential Evapotranspiration on Multiple Time Scales

Manning

Widmann

Bevacqua

et al. 2018

Journal of Hydrometeorology

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Compound events are extreme impacts that depend on multiple variables that need not be extreme themselves. In this study, we analyze soil moisture drought as a compound event of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (PET) on multiple time scales related to both meteorological drought and heat waves in wet, transitional, and dry climates in Europe during summer. Drought indices that incorporate PET to account for the effect of temperature on drought conditions are sensitive to global warming. However, as evapotranspiration (ET) is moisture limited in dry climates, the use of such drought indices has often been criticized. We therefore assess the relevance of the contributions of both precipitation and PET to the estimation of soil moisture drought. Applying a statistical model based on pair copula constructions to data from FluxNet sites in Europe, we find at all sites that precipitation exerts the main control over soil moisture drought. At wet sites PET is additionally required to explain the onset, severity, and persistence of drought events over different time scales. At dry sites, where ET is moisture limited in summer, PET does not improve the estimation of soil moisture. In dry climates, increases in drought severity measured by indices incorporating PET may therefore not indicate further drying of soil but the increased availability of energy that can contribute to other environmental hazards such as heat waves and wildfires. We therefore highlight that drought indices including PET should be interpreted within the context of the climate and season in which they are applied in order to maximize their value.

show abstract

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

Cited by 106 publications

References 30 publications

Extensive drought‐associated plant mortality as an agent of type‐conversion in chaparral shrublands

Extensive drought‐associated plant mortality as an agent of type‐conversion in chaparral shrublands

Effects of Drought and the Emergency Drought Barrier on the Ecosystem of the California Delta

Soil Moisture Drought in Europe: A Compound Event of Precipitation and Potential Evapotranspiration on Multiple Time Scales

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About