Steve Kannenberg, assistant professor of biology at WVU's Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, employs data from scientific instrument stations throughout the affected area to study the drought. This drought poses a critical challenge for natural ecosystems, agriculture, and human water supplies, yet it remains poorly understood.
Funding from the National Science Foundation's Ecosystem Science Cluster and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) supports Kannenberg's efforts to pinpoint the drought's most intense regions.
The findings are expected to indicate areas with depleted groundwater and soil moisture and identify the dryland plants most impacted. Drylands, defined by limited water availability, contrast starkly with water-rich areas like West Virginia.
"In West Virginia, water is abundant," Kannenberg noted. "However, in places like Utah, the conditions are hot and dry, significantly affecting plant health through available soil and atmospheric moisture."
Researchers use tree growth rings to track the climatological history of the west's drylands, discovering this period to be the harshest drought in 1,200 years. Kannenberg integrates this tree ring data with soil moisture and groundwater measurements, along with ecosystem fluxes recorded by eddy covariance flux towers.
"These sophisticated weather stations monitor the ecosystem's respiratory activities," he explained. "They measure the intake of carbon by vegetation during photosynthesis and its release back into the atmosphere at night."
Additionally, these stations assess precipitation, plant-based water release to the atmosphere, and soil evaporation.
With global projections indicating an increase in megadrought frequency and severity, Kannenberg's integrated data could inform research on both dryland and more humid biomes. His research also concentrates on carbon capture, noting the fluctuating ability of dryland vegetation to store carbon based on water availability, unlike the predictable carbon uptake in eastern forests.
"Dryland ecosystems play a crucial role globally, not for their extensive carbon storage, but due to their temporal variability in carbon uptake," Kannenberg stated. "This makes understanding photosynthesis and carbon storage in these ecosystems critical."
He further discussed potential management strategies to mitigate ongoing impacts and prepare for future conditions, as warming trends could exacerbate drought cycles.
"Historically, megadroughts have been exceptionally rare," he concluded. "However, they are expected to become more frequent and severe moving forward."
Related Links
West Virginia University
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
