<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><strong class="">Redefining Drought Could Lead to Better Preparation</strong><br class=""><span class="" style="font-size: medium; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A team of USGS and partner researchers have proposed a new definition of drought that looks beyond drought’s human-centric impacts to account for the high cost of drought on nature and ecosystem services. </span><div class=""><span class="" style="font-size: medium; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span class="" style="font-size: medium; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This novel “ecological drought” approach may help decision makers better prevent and respond to drought impacts, especially as drought risk rises in the 21st century. </span><div class=""><font size="3" class=""><span class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br class=""></span></font><div class=""><strong class=""><a href="https://nccwsc.usgs.gov/content/redefining-drought-could-lead-better-preparation" class="">Learn more >></a></strong></div><div class=""><a href="https://nccwsc.usgs.gov/content/redefining-drought-could-lead-better-preparation" class="">https://nccwsc.usgs.gov/content/redefining-drought-could-lead-better-preparation</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><b class="">Excerpt [bold added]</b></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Ecological drought impacts are important,” said Shelley Crausbay, a researcher on the project conducted by the Ecological Drought Expert Working Group with support from the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center and the Science for Nature and People Partnership. <b class="">“But so far, they have not easily fit under the existing drought definitions long used by the drought community</b> and, as a result, <b class="">ecosystem responses to drought remain largely absent from most drought-planning efforts.”</b></p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#333333" class="">The new definition, which </font><a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0292.1" target="_blank" class="" style="color: rgb(51, 122, 183); box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none;">was presented in the </a><font color="#0433ff" class=""><a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0292.1" target="_blank" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none;">Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society</a> </font><b class="" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">[open access] </b><font color="#333333" class=""><<</font><a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0292.1" class=""><font color="#0433ff" class="">http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0292.1</font></a><font color="#333333" class="">>>,<b class=""> describes ecological drought as a deficit in available water to the point that ecosystems are irreversibly altered,</b> affecting benefits people typically gain from nature, such as food, water, clean air or recreation. The lack of benefits, in turn, triggers new reactions in both natural and human systems.</font></p><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></div><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">***********************************************************************<br class="">"Conservationists must therefore assess both current and future distributions of species.”<br class=""><br class="">Araújo and Rahbek. How does climate change affect biodiversity? Science 2006).<br class=""> <br class="">******************************************************************************************************<br class="">“Using a meta-analysis, we estimated that the distributions of species have recently shifted to higher elevations at a median rate <br class="">of 11.0 meters per decade, and to higher latitudes at a median rate of 16.9 kilometers per decade. These rates are approximately <br class="">two and three times faster than previously reported”<br class=""><br class="">Chen et al. Rapid Range Shifts of Species Associated with High Levels of Climate Warming. Science 2011).<br class=""> <br class="">******************************************************************************************************************<br class="">“The rate of warming implies … range shifts of up to several kilometers per year, raising the prospect of daunting challenges for ecosystems …”<br class=""><br class="">Diffenbaugh and Field. Changes in Ecologically Critical Terrestrial Climate Conditions. Science. 2013<br class=""> <br class="">*****************************************************************************************************************<br class="">At a time when the world is anticipating unprecedented increases in human population growth and demands, the ability of natural ecosystems <br class="">to deliver ecosystem services is being challenged by the largest climate-driven global redistribution of species since the Last Glacial Maximum.”<br class=""><br class="">Pecl et al. Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human well-being. Science 2017<br class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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