PIXABAY
A study published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)” revealed possible drivers of the accumulation of sudden changes in the planet’s dryland ecosystems as a consequence of global change.
Drylands are home to 2.1 billion people and harbor some of the rarest biodiversity in the world. Protecting these critical ecosystems requires understanding the impact of humans on the recovery and response time of these ecosystems. Moreover, on a global scale, drylands are very sensitive to ecological changes resulting from global change.
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Abrupt changes in dryland productivity
A new investigation involving the IRNAS-CSIC BioFunLab, and conducted by the Crowtherlab of ETH Zurich and the University of Montpellier, shows that sudden changes in the productivity of drylands are taking place and describes the hotspots in which these changes are taking place.
More specifically, these investigations show that 50% of the arid ecosystems which have shown changes in their productivity over the past twenty years have done so in a brutal manner. Moreover, the prevalence of these sudden changes highlights the concern about the sudden loss of resilience of these ecosystems.
Using artificial intelligence algorithms, the research team was able to study 40,000 natural dryland ecosystems around the world to characterize how climate change and anthropogenic factors affect the incidence of these abrupt changes in the arid lands of the world.
“Three quarters of Spain are already arid or semi-arid ecosystems threatened by desertification. Identifying areas of the earth that are experiencing sudden changes in their primary productivity and the possible causes of these changes is essential to anticipate sudden changes in food production and desertification processes with current climate change”says Manuel Delgado Baquerizo, head of the Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS/CSIC) and co-author of the article.
Estimate ecosystem responses
The team was able to uncover possible drivers for the accumulation of sudden changes. “Uncovering these mechanisms that cause abrupt changes in ecosystems helps us lay the groundwork to preserve and restore the ecosystems we have and safeguard them for the future”says Tom Crowther, co-author of the study.
The team found that ecosystems with higher rainfall seasonality tend to exhibit more sudden negative changes, i.e., they shift from green ecosystems to brown ecosystems more frequently. On the contrary, lower rainfall seasonality was associated with sudden positive changes (the landscape rapidly changed from brown to green).
Moreover, this research was only possible due to the recent appearance of long-term vegetation productivity time series available globally. Dr. Vasilis Dakos, final author of the study, says: “More broadly, this study shows how we can estimate ecosystem responses and understand their resilience on a global scale based on remote sensing products”.
human presence
Besides the important role of seasonality in rainfall, research highlights that human presence can hinder the rapid recovery of vegetation in drylands, making dryland ecosystems less resilient.
“Drylands are unique and very subject to dramatic change, supporting 50% of the world’s livestock. Our research can serve as a management guide to understanding the limits of human pressure under which vegetation restoration will be most successful and the conditions that make these systems more vulnerable in order to preserve productive ecosystems.”says lead author Dr. Miguel Berdugo.
“This study provides an atlas of possible locations that could be of interest to make such in situ observations, in order to obtain more information on other more concrete and local triggers of abrupt changes in these ecosystems, and to help to guide how we can ensure drylands remain resilient and productive in the face of climate change”concludes Dr. Miguel Berdugo.
Character font: SCCI, DICYT,
Reference article: https://www.dicyt.com/noticias/las-arid-zones-of-the-world-experiment-an-abrupt-change-in-their-production-in-the-last-20-years