Time of Year Important in Projections of Climate Change Effects on Ecosystems

(From Science Daily) Does it matter whether long periods of hot weather, such as last year’s heat wave that gripped the U.S. Midwest, happen in June or July, August or September? Scientists studying the subtle effects of heat waves and droughts say that when such events happen makes a big difference.

Based on more than 25 years of data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Kansas–one of 26 such NSF LTER sites across the globe–ecologists looked at how droughts and heat waves affect grass growth during different months of the year.

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published their results today.

“A major challenge in studying climate change is separating the effects of long-term trends from interannual variation,” says Saran Twombly, program director for NSF’s LTER Network.

“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 researchers found that droughts reduced grass growth most in early June, while heat waves reduced grass growth only during late July.

Read more here: Time of Year Important in Projections of Climate Change Effects on Ecosystems