TERN Webinar - November 2024 - Drought: challenges of monitoring and measuring

Drought is one of the most urgent consequences of global climate change, with profound impacts. But what do we mean by drought? Several types are recognised: meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, socioeconomic, and ecological.

Ecological drought is a deficit in available water. This deficit drives ecosystem processes beyond their thresholds of vulnerability and impacts ecosystem services. It can reduce plant productivity; increase fire and insect outbreaks; change carbon, nutrient, and water cycling rates; change plant and animal community composition; and contribute to local species extinctions.

Under climate change, ecosystems are experiencing novel drought regimes, often in combination with other stressors that reduce resilience and amplify drought’s impacts. Consequently, drought appears increasingly likely to push systems beyond important physiological and ecological thresholds. Substantial changes in ecosystem characteristics that persist long after drought ends will result in ecosystem transformation.

In TERN’s final 2024 Webinar, our speakers give 3 intriguing insights into ecological drought research. Hear about the basis for predictions of mega-droughts; measurements of carbon, water and energy cycling in Australian ecosystems; and an investigation of the nature of drought-related data being gathered across continents for global research.