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Environmental science

Trends in ecosystem recovery from drought

Nature volume 548, pages 164–165 (2017)Cite this article

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An analysis suggests that the time taken for ecosystems to recover from drought increased during the twentieth century. If the frequency of drought events rises, some ecosystems might never have the chance to fully recover. See Letter p.202

On page 202, Schwalm et al.1 assess historical trends in the recovery of ecosystems from drought, using three state-of-the-art data sets of gross primary productivity (GPP) — the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide that is fixed in ecosystems by photosynthesis. Intriguingly, the analysis suggests that the total area of ecosystems that are in a post-drought recovery state increased during the twentieth century. Moreover, the authors identify areas where the drought-recovery time is particularly long, and which might, therefore, be particularly vulnerable to more-frequent droughts.

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Figure 1: Effects of changes to recurrent environmental stressors.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland

    Sonia I. Seneviratne

  2. the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91191, France

    Philippe Ciais

Authors
  1. Sonia I. Seneviratne
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  2. Philippe Ciais
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Correspondence to Sonia I. Seneviratne.

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Seneviratne, S., Ciais, P. Trends in ecosystem recovery from drought. Nature 548, 164–165 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/548164a

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