Webinar: Grassland Vulnerability to Climate Change in Southwest Deserts

Climate change predictions include warming and drying trends, which are expected to be particularly pronounced in the southwestern United States. In this region, grassland dynamics are tightly linked to available moisture, yet it has proven difficult to resolve what aspects of climate drive vegetation change.Here, we combine climate and soil properties with a mechanistic soil water model to explain temporal fluctuations in perennial grass cover, quantify where and the degree to which incorporating soil water dynamics enhances our ability to understand temporal patterns, and explore the potential consequences of climate change by assessing future trajectories of important climate and soil water variables.Our analyses...

Categories: Data; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Academics & scientific researchers, Conservation NGOs, Data.gov Desert LCC, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION, Federal resource managers, All tags... LCC Network Science Catalog, biota, chihuahuan desert, chihuahuan desert, climate change, climate change, colorado plateau, colorado plateau, completed, ecohydrology, ecohydrology, grasslands, grasslands, historic patterns, historic patterns, presentation, product, soil water, soil water, sonoran desert, sonoran desert, vegetation change, vegetation change, water availability, water availability, Fewer tags