1/19/25
The Institute of Science and Technology Austria produced a study that confirms that since 1980 multi-year droughts have become more common with a warming climate. The study seeks to inform policy regarding the environmental impact of human-induced climate change. Thanks to this even previously overlooked events were detected. The entire drought study is publicly available in the form of a forty-year global quantitative inventory published in the journal Science.
Photo:Depositphotos
During a fifteen-year drought in Chile water supplies almost dried up and the country's vital mining production was affected. Chile's longest drought in a thousand years is just one example of how a warming climate is causing multi-year drought and acute water crises in vulnerable areas around the world. Droughts are only recorded when they visibly damage agricultural production and forests. However, pressing questions arise whether humanity is able to consistently identify extreme multi-year droughts and investigate their impacts on ecosystems? Can lessons be learned from drought patterns over the past four decades?
To answer these questions, the scientists had to analyze global meteorological data and also model droughts from 1980-2018. Since 1980, the drought-stricken area has expanded by fifty thousand square kilometers. The goal of the team of scientists is to uncover the possible long-term effects of persistent droughts around the world and help inform policy to prepare for more frequent and severe megadroughts.
The international team used climate data prepared by senior researcher Dirk Karger. They calculated anomalies in precipitation and evapotranspiration and the subsequent impact on natural ecosystems. This allowed scientists to determine the occurrence of multi-year droughts in both well-studied and less accessible regions of the planet. Among the less studied areas are primarily forest areas and the Andes. An eight-year dry stage also occurred in the Congo Rainforest between 2010 and 2018. In any case the drought has most affected the temperate grassland areas over the past forty years. So far boreal and tropical forests are mostly drought-resistan, but the question is how long this will be.
The results of the study are clear and show that the megadrought intensifying trend is clear. However the long-term effects on the planet and its ecosystems remain unknown. The most important thing is that the governments of the countries devote enough resources to prevention and prepare for possible long-lasting drought.
Source:ScienceDaily
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