Infrastructure to factorially manipulate the mean and variance of precipitation in the field

Rudgers, Jennifer A.; Luketich, Anthony; Bacigalupa, Melissa; Baur, Lauren E.; Collins, Scott L.; Hall, Kristofer M.; Hou, Enqing; Litvak, Marcy E.; Luo, Yiqi; Miller, Tom E. X.; Newsome, Seth D.; Pockman, William T.; Richardson, Andrew D.; Rinehart, Alex; Villatoro‐Castañeda, Melissa; Wainwright, Brooke E.; Watson, Samantha J.; Yogi, Purbendra; Zhou, Yu

doi:10.1002/ecs2.4603

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

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“…It is essential to distinguish between N‐saturated and N‐limited watersheds to unravel how changes in the total amount of precipitation and its intermittency or variability will influence watershed processes (Rudgers et al., 2023). In our model setup, N deposition was 100 times higher in N‐saturated (5 g m −2 year −1 ) than in N‐limited scenarios (0.05 g m −2 year −1 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have found that precipitation amount and variability both play an important role in driving ecosystem responses to climate change (Gherardi & Sala, 2015, 2019; Jiang et al., 2019; Rudgers et al., 2023). Here we extend those studies to also examine the role of precipitation intermittency and focus on how it affects streamflow nitrate export.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have found that precipitation amount and variability both play an important role in driving ecosystem responses to climate change (Gherardi & Sala, 2015Jiang et al, 2019;Rudgers et al, 2023).…”

Section: The Role Of Changing Precipitation Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Earth's Future 10.1029/2023EF004120 responses to changing precipitation regimes. Such experiments should not only consider the important roles of storm size and variance (as identified by Gherardi and Sala (2015) and Rudgers et al (2023)), but should also incorporate intermittency as a key driver.…”

Section: The Role Of Changing Precipitation Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dryland Watersheds in Flux: How Nitrogen Deposition and Changing Precipitation Regimes Shape Nitrogen Export

Ren,

Hanan,

D'Odorico

et al. 2024

Earth's Future

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Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition and climate change are transforming the way N moves through dryland watersheds. For example, N deposition is increasing N export to streams, which may be exacerbated by changes in the magnitude, timing, and intensity of precipitation (i.e., the precipitation regime). While deposition can control the amount of N entering a watershed, the precipitation regime influences rates of internal cycling; when and where soil N, plant roots, and microbes are hydrologically coupled via diffusion; how quickly plants and microbes assimilate N; and rates of denitrification, runoff, and leaching. We used the ecohydrological model RHESSys to investigate (a) how N dynamics differ between N‐limited and N‐saturated conditions in a dryland watershed, and (b) how total precipitation and its intra‐annual intermittency (i.e., the time between storms in a year), interannual intermittency (i.e., the duration of dry months across multiple years), and interannual variability (i.e., variance in the amount of precipitation among years) modify N dynamics and export. Streamflow nitrate (NO3−) export was more sensitive to increasing rainfall intermittency (both intra‐annual and interannual) and variability in N‐limited than in N‐saturated model scenarios, particularly when total precipitation was lower—the opposite was true for denitrification which is more sensitive in N‐saturated than N‐limited scenarios. N export and denitrification increased or decreased more with increasing interannual intermittency than with other changes in precipitation amount. This suggests that under future climate change, prolonged droughts that are followed by more intense storms may pose a major threat to water quality in dryland watersheds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%