Persistence of a Severe Drought Increases Desertification But not Woody Dieback in Semiarid Savanna☆

L. Wonkka Carissa; Dirac Twidwell; Trenton E. Franz; Charles A. Taylor; William E. Rogers

doi:10.1016/j.rama.2016.07.005

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1 November 2016 Persistence of a Severe Drought Increases Desertification But not Woody Dieback in Semiarid Savanna

L. Wonkka Carissa, Dirac Twidwell, Trenton E. Franz, Charles A. Taylor, William E. Rogers

Author Affiliations +

L. Wonkka Carissa
Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Dirac Twidwell
Department of Agronomy & Horticulture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA
Trenton E. Franz
School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA
Charles A. Taylor
Texas A&M Agrilife Research Center, Texas A&M University, Sonora, TX 76950, USA
William E. Rogers
Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA

Rangeland Ecology and Management, 69(6):491-498 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2016.07.005

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Abstract

Increases in precipitation variability, coupledwith higher temperatures, will lead to greater frequencies of severe, prolonged droughts for many regions with the expectation of attendant increases in woody plant die-off events. We took advantage of a 2-yr extension of a severe drought following an initial study of woody plant dieback in a woody-encroached semiarid savanna in west-central Texas, United States. This study tests for the emergence of alternative vegetation trajectories as a result of continued drought persistence: 1) whether additional woody plant dieback occurred following the initial study, leading to a grass-dominated community, or 2) whether desertification became amajor feature (defined as a loss of herbaceous cover and increase in bare ground). Neither the emergence of a grass-dominated community nor the prevalence of desertification was observed during the initial study. After 2 additional yr of drought, we found that dieback of woody plants did not increase above previously observed levels, suggesting that the prolongation of drought did not cause the emergence of a grassdominated community in this heavily encroached rangeland. However, drought severity did lead to increases in desertification, with increases in bare ground owed to declines in grass cover. While previous research at this long-term research site suggests that desertification is transient with grasses rebounding once precipitation returns to predrought levels, rangelandmanagers should be aware of lags in vegetation response to drought and the increased potential for a shift toward a bare-ground dominated community following extended extreme drought. In this Texas semiarid savanna, major losses in herbaceous cover lagged behind woody plant dieback, so dieback of the woody component might hold promise as an indicator for near-termpotential of desertification.

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L. Wonkka Carissa, Dirac Twidwell, Trenton E. Franz, Charles A. Taylor and William E. Rogers "Persistence of a Severe Drought Increases Desertification But not Woody Dieback in Semiarid Savanna ^☆," Rangeland Ecology and Management 69(6), (1 November 2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2016.07.005

Received: 25 June 2015; Accepted: 1 July 2016; Published: 1 November 2016

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