Title | Regional telecoupling and impacts of wet periods across the Chihuahuan Desert of the United States and northern Mexico |
Publication Type | Conference Paper |
Year of Publication | 2018 |
Authors | Petrie MD, Peters DC, N. Burruss D, Ji W, Hanan N, Savoy H |
Conference Name | Ecological Society of America |
Date Published | 08/2018 |
Publisher | Ecological Society of America |
Conference Location | New Orleans, LA |
ARIS Log Number | 350835 |
Abstract | Telecoupling of environmental and ecological conditions in aridlands is associated with the Land Surface Template (LST) and precipitation (PPT) patterns. Variation in telecoupling may be shaped by multiple factors, and local (< 1 km2) observations may be similar to regional (> 250 km2) patterns under some conditions and different under others. For example, extreme drought events can influence vegetation over large regions, and overwhelm the effects of many LST factors. Multi-year high PPT periods that resulted in perennial grass production on some sites have received less attention. In the Chihuahuan Desert region, individual rainfall events in the monsoon season are stochastic, suggesting that high PPT is localized and widespread positive telecoupling is improbable. Yet, multi-year high PPT periods may homogenize stochastic rainfall patterns through time and across space to overwhelm local LST conditions, and in this way promote positive telecoupling that is not possible in single years. |