Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Publication Date
12-2019
Abstract
It has been suggested that hillslope topography can produce hydrologic refugia, sites where ecosystem productivity is relatively insensitive to climate variation. However, the ecological impacts and spatial distribution of these sites are poorly resolved across gradients in climate. We quantified the response of ecosystem net primary productivity to changes in the annual climatic water balance for 30 years using pixel‐specific linear regression (30‐m resolution) across the western United States. The standardized slopes of these models represent ecosystem climate sensitivity and provide a means to identify drought‐resistant ecosystems. Productive and resistant ecosystems were most frequent in convergent hillslope positions, especially in semiarid climates. Ecosystems in divergent positions were moderately resistant to climate variability, but less productive relative to convergent positions. This topographic effect was significantly dampened in hygric and xeric climates. In aggregate, spatial patterns of ecosystem sensitivity can be implemented for regional planning to maximize conservation in landscapes more resistant to perturbations.
Recommended Citation
Hoylman, Z. H., Jencso, K. G., Hu, J., Holden, Z. A., Allred, B., Dobrowski, S., et al. (2019). The topographic signature of ecosystem climate sensitivity in the western United States. Geophysical Research Letters, 46 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085546
Supplemental figures
Comments
This work was made possible by a USDA NIFA McIntire Stennis award 233327 to Jencso, NSF grants DEB‐ 1457749 and DEB‐1457720 to Jencso and Hu, and a NASA applied science program Wildland Fire award (agreement NNH11ZDA001N‐FIRES) to Holden. The authors also thank NSF EPSCoR Track‐1 EPS‐1101342 (INSTEP 3) for support. Data for this analysis are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.3460768.
Data associated with this article can also be found here.