The same is true for droughts as well, investigators say

Feb 14, 2012 08:31 GMT  ·  By
Drought or heat waves seemed to have less effect on grass growth as summer turned to fall
   Drought or heat waves seemed to have less effect on grass growth as summer turned to fall

A group of investigators from the Kansas State University (KSU) say that the disposition of heat waves and droughts within a year plays a huge role in determining the effects these phenomena will have on ecosystems. A new study the team conducted looked at over 25 years-worth of data.

In other words, what the research group was especially interested in learning was whether heat waves, for instance, produce widely-different effects if they occur in June, July, August or September. The answer, in short, is yes.

In order to get the most relevant results, the team also included data on droughts into their model. Their main source of information was a set of readings spanning 25 years, which they collected from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site.

Located in Kansas, this is just one of 26 NSF LTER locations scattered around the world. What these data included was information about how grass grew following droughts and heat videos. The overall dataset included heat waves and droughts that occurred in all summer months.

“A major challenge in studying climate change is separating the effects of long-term trends from interannual variation,” explains NSF LTER Network Program Director, Saran Twombly.

“This study identifies variation in the timing and magnitude of drought and heat as keys to an ecosystem. The results highlight the importance of long-term data to understanding the complex interactions that underlie ecological responses to climate change,” the official explains.

One of the most interesting discoveries was that heat waves and droughts occurring in August and September appeared to have no discernible influence on grass growth. Details of this discovery appear in the February 13 issue of the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

However, droughts in early June and heat waves in late July were found to produce the worst effects, stopping grass growth, and producing ecosystemic imbalances with far-reaching implications.

“Future projections need to incorporate predictions of not only how much climate will change, but when during the year changes will happen,” KSU investigator and lead study author Joseph Craine explains.

“That the effects of climate change on grasslands depend on when they happen may not be much of a surprise – little snow in winter may have less effect than low rainfall in summer, for example,” he concludes.