Determining Drought on California’s Mediterranean-Type Rangelands, he Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program

George, Melvin R.; Larsen, Royce E.; McDougald, N. M.; Vaughn, Charles E.; Flavell, D. K.; Dudley, Dennis M.; Frost, William E.; Striby, Karl; Forero, Larry

doi:10.2111/rangelands-d-10-00003.1

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Broadly speaking, ANPP was also positively correlated with increasing annual rainfall. This finding is generally consistent with previous studies in other rangelands around the word (Noy-Meir, 1973;Le Houérou & Hoste, 1977;Sala et al, 1988;Burke et al, 1997;Hooper & Johnson, 1999;Paruelo et al, 1999;Lauenroth et al, 2000;Huxman et al, 2004;Bai et al, 2008;Yang et al, 2008;George et al, 2010;Gamoun et al, 2011;Golodets et al, 2013;Gamoun, 2014;Eisfelder et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Rain Use Efficiency, Primary Production and Rainfall Relationships in Desert Rangelands of Tunisia

Gamoun

2015

Land Degrad Dev

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Desert rangelands are characterised by low and highly variable rainfall regime, low forage production and high heterogeneity in the distribution of natural resources. This study was carried out in the desert rangelands of Tunisia to evaluate the response of different rangelands to annual rainfall in terms of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and rain use efficiency over a 10‐year period (2003–2012). In general, ANPP values were relatively low (123 kg DM ha−1 y−1) but would tend to increase with increasing annual rainfall for all rangeland types. The highest value of ANPP was observed from Stipagrostis pungens and Hammada shmittiana communities (sandy‐soil) during the wet year 2011. In contrast, rain use efficiency tends to decline with the highest annual rainfall and varies among rangeland types and with an average of 1·9 kg DM ha−1 mm−1 y−1. Rain use efficiency tended to be higher during dry years and lower during wet years and tended to be higher on S. pungens and H. shmittiana (sandy‐soils) and lower on Helianthemum kahiricum (loamy soils). Therefore, understanding how rainfall affects productivity in rangelands is critical for predicting the impact of land degradation on the functioning of these ecosystems. It can be used to explain production decline associated with desertification as well as to assess rangeland conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Rain Use Efficiency, Primary Production and Rainfall Relationships in Desert Rangelands of Tunisia

Gamoun

2015

Land Degrad Dev

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“…These studies showed that higher productivity is associated with higher rainfall but the relationship is not simple. Thus, average production can occur in both relatively high and low rainfall years, as recently documented at 26 range-monitoring sites across California (George et al, 2010). Together, these factors are recognized to control California annual range growth across four distinct growth phases: (1) fall or winter germination following at least 1.25-2.5 cm precipitation in less than a week with rapid fall growth if the temperature is in the ideal range of 16-27°C; (2) slow winter growth if the temperature is <10°C and little growth if the temperature is <5°C, pending available moisture and light; (3) rapid growth with spring warming and longer days, pending available soil moisture; and (4) peak forage from early April to end of May, depending on region and weather, but generally as a result of exhausting root-zone soil moisture (0-30 cm for annual species, George et al, 1988;Becchetti et al, 2016a).…”

mentioning

confidence: 75%

“…Forage production in California rangelands is highly variable between years (George et al, 2010) because of the vagaries of atmospheric rivers that provide the majority of annual precipitation in Cal-ifornia (Swain, Langenbrunner, Neelin, & Hall, 2018). This makes cattle production in California a risky enterprise because livestock herd numbers and movements are difficult to optimize or to adapt quickly (Shrum, Travis, Williams, & Lih, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Microclimate–forage growth linkages across two strongly contrasting precipitation years in a Mediterranean catchment

O’Geen

Larsen²,

Dahlke

et al. 2019

Ecohydrology

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Given the complex topography of California rangelands, contrasting microclimates affect forage growth at catchment scales. However, documentation of microclimate-forage growth associations is limited, especially in Mediterranean regions experiencing pronounced climate change impacts. To better understand microclimate-forage growth linkages, we monitored forage productivity and rootzone soil temperature and moisture (0-15 and 15-30 cm) in 16 topographic positions in a 10-ha annual grassland catchment in California's Central Coast Range. Data were collected through two strongly contrasting growing seasons, a wet year (2016-17) with 287-mm precipitation and a dry year (2017-18) with 123-mm precipitation.Plant-available soil water storage (0-30 cm) was more than half full for most of the wet year; mean peak standing forage was 2790 kg ha −1 (range: 1597-4570 kg ha −1 ).The dry year had restricted plant-available water and mean peak standing forage was reduced to 970 kg ha −1 (range: 462-1496 kg ha −1 ). In the wet year, forage growth appeared energy limited (light and temperature): warmer sites produced more forage across a 3-4°C soil temperature gradient but late season growth was associated with moister sites spanning this energy gradient. In the dry year, the warmest topographic positions produced limited forage across a 10°C soil temperature gradient until late season rainfall in March. Linear models accounting for interactions between soil moisture and temperature explained about half of rapid, springtime forage growth variance. These findings reveal dynamic but clear microclimate-forage growth linkages in complex terrain, and thus, have implications for rangeland drought monitoring and dryland ecosystems modeling under climate change.

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“…Precipitation effects within the growing season are not considered in the model, and it therefore does not respond to midwinter droughts, which may substantially reduce forage production in some years. At most annual rangeland locations in the Bay Area, moisture is seldom limiting during the growing season [7]. The degree day model used in this study was developed using production and weather data from areas that vary quite dramatically in their precipitation regimes, with annual rainfall ranging from 13 to 53 inches [16] Modeled annual precipitation for Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano Counties did not fall outside of this range in any year.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While precipitation has been shown to be an important variable for predicting annual rangeland productivity, temperature within the growing season is also important [6]. Precipitation, temperature and forage production data collected since 1935 at the San Joaquin Experimental Range in Madera County have shown that near average production can occur in low rainfall years if precipitation is well distributed and low annual production can occur in wet years if precipitation is poorly distributed or if temperatures are below normal, as is often associated with wet weather [7]. Thus, integrating changes in both temperature and precipitation could improve forecasts of rangeland forage production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Climate Change on Range Forage Production in the San Francisco Bay Area

Chaplin‐Kramer

George

2013

PLoS ONE

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The San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA is a highly heterogeneous region in climate, topography, and habitats, as well as in its political and economic interests. Successful conservation strategies must consider various current and future competing demands for the land, and should pay special attention to livestock grazing, the dominant non-urban land-use. The main objective of this study was to predict changes in rangeland forage production in response to changes in temperature and precipitation projected by downscaled output from global climate models. Daily temperature and precipitation data generated by four climate models were used as input variables for an existing rangeland forage production model (linear regression) for California’s annual rangelands and projected on 244 12 km x 12 km grid cells for eight Bay Area counties. Climate model projections suggest that forage production in Bay Area rangelands may be enhanced by future conditions in most years, at least in terms of peak standing crop. However, the timing of production is as important as its peak, and altered precipitation patterns could mean delayed germination, resulting in shorter growing seasons and longer periods of inadequate forage quality. An increase in the frequency of extremely dry years also increases the uncertainty of forage availability. These shifts in forage production will affect the economic viability and conservation strategies for rangelands in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Determining Drought on California’s Mediterranean-Type Rangelands, he Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

Rain Use Efficiency, Primary Production and Rainfall Relationships in Desert Rangelands of Tunisia

Rain Use Efficiency, Primary Production and Rainfall Relationships in Desert Rangelands of Tunisia

Microclimate–forage growth linkages across two strongly contrasting precipitation years in a Mediterranean catchment

Effects of Climate Change on Range Forage Production in the San Francisco Bay Area

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