Published

We are directly testing how climate mean and variance interacts by building the first field experiments that cross long-term drought with increased rainfall variability.
Credit: Jennifer Rudgers

Pulse-reserve theory has been a dominant conceptual framework for drylands since the 1970s. Detailed long term observations and experiments at the SEV LTER revealed that individual rainfall pulses rarely produce significant reserves and that many ecosystem processes do not “pulse” on the same time scales. SEV LTER researchers have improved pulse-reserve theory with the Threshold Delay Nutrient Dynamics model, which incorporated microbial processes.

Learn more

  1. Thomey, ML et al. 2011. Effect of precipitation variability on net primary production and soil respiration in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365- 2486.2010.02363.x
  2. Collins, SL et al. 2008. Pulse dynamics and microbial processes in arid ecosystems. Journal of Ecology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365- 2745.2008.01362.x

Contact

Jennifer Rudgers
jrudgers@unm.edu

Posted:  July 16, 2020  

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