TY - JOUR A1 - Munjonji, Lawrence A1 - Ayisi, Kingsley Kwabena A1 - Mudongo, Edwin I. A1 - Mafeo, Tieho Paulus A1 - Behn, Kai A1 - Mokoka, Malesela Vincent A1 - Linstädter, Anja T1 - Disentangling drought and grazing effects on soil carbon stocks and CO2 fluxes in a semi-arid African Savanna JF - Frontiers in Environmental Science N2 - Grasslands cover ca. 30% of the global land surface and provide critical ecosystem services. Among them, carbon storage is one of the most important. However, grasslands are increasingly threatened by drought and overgrazing which might negatively affect soil carbon stocks. Despite this threat, there is a dearth of information on how drought and grazing jointly impact soil carbon stocks and CO2 fluxes in dryland grasslands. With the aid of a large field experiment, we studied the combined effects of a 5-year extreme drought and moderate grazing on soil carbon stocks, CO2 fluxes and soil chemical properties. Extreme drought was induced by reducing ambient rainfall by 66% using large rainout shelters. We found CO2 fluxes to strongly respond to the 5-year experimental drought. Extreme drought reduced CO2 emission rates by 32% compared to ambient conditions. CO2 fluxes averaged 5.7 mg m(-2)min(-1) under drought compared to 8.3 mg m(-2) min(-1) under ambient conditions. CO2 fluxes were, however, not influenced by grazing. At the end of the growth period, grazed plots under ambient rainfall had released 16.3 tons of CO2 ha(-1) which was 58% higher than observed on grazed plots subjected to severe drought. Soil carbon stocks were higher under drought conditions due to slower decomposition rates. Drought resulted in increased concentrations of primary macronutrients (N, P, and K), micronutrients (Zn and Mn) and pH in the top 30 cm of the soil relative to ambient conditions. The results also showed that grazing reduced the concentration of N and P in the topsoil compared to the ungrazed plots. This study provided insights on the soil carbon storage, CO2 emission rates and nutrient dynamics in a semi-arid dryland grassland as influenced by both drought and grazing. Our study also revealed that long-term extreme drought may be favorable in terms of preserving the existing soil carbon stocks through reduced CO2 release. This finding is critical for understanding future soil carbon dynamics in dryland grasslands in the face of climate change. KW - C stocks KW - CO2 flux KW - drought KW - dryland grasslands KW - grazing Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2020.590665 SN - 2296-665X VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Boergens, Eva A1 - Güntner, Andreas A1 - Dobslaw, Henryk A1 - Dahle, Christoph T1 - Quantifying the Central European droughts in 2018 and 2019 with GRACE Follow-On JF - Geophysical research letters : GRL N2 - The GRACE-FO satellites launched in May 2018 are able to quantify the water mass deficit in Central Europe during the two consecutive summer droughts of 2018 and 2019. Relative to the long-term climatology, the water mass deficits were-112 +/- 10.5 Gt in 2018 and-145 +/- 12 Gt in 2019. These deficits are 73% and 94% of the mean amplitude of seasonal water storage variations, which is so severe that a recovery cannot be expected within 1 year. The water deficits in 2018 and 2019 are the largest in the whole GRACE and GRACE-FO time span. Globally, the data do not show an offset between the two missions, which proves the successful continuation of GRACE by GRACE-FO and thus the reliability of the observed extreme events in Central Europe. This allows for a joint assessment of the four Central European droughts in 2003, 2015, 2018, and 2019 in terms of total water storage deficits. KW - GRACE-FO KW - GRACE KW - drought KW - Central European drought 2018 KW - Central European drought 2019 Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087285 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 47 IS - 14 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington, DC ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hoke, Alexa A1 - Woodhouse, Jason Nicholas A1 - Zoccarato, Luca A1 - McCarthy, Valerie A1 - de Eyto, Elvira A1 - Caldero-Pascual, Maria A1 - Geffroy, Ewan A1 - Dillane, Mary A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Jennings, Eleanor T1 - Impacts of extreme weather events on bacterial community composition of a temperate humic lake JF - Water N2 - Extreme weather events are projected to increase in frequency and intensity as climate change continues. Heterotrophic bacteria play a critical role in lake ecosystems, yet little research has been done to determine how they are affected by such extremes. The purpose of this study was to use high-throughput sequencing to explore the bacterial community composition of a humic oligotrophic lake on the North Atlantic Irish coast and to assess the impacts on composition dynamics related to extreme weather events. Samples for sequencing were collected from Lough Feeagh on a fortnightly basis from April to November 2018. Filtration was used to separate free-living and particle-associated bacterial communities and amplicon sequencing was performed for the 16S rRNA V4 region. Two named storms, six high discharge events, and one drought period occurred during the sampling period. These events had variable, context-dependent effects on bacterial communities in Lough Feeagh. The particle-associated community was found to be more likely to respond to physical changes, such as mixing, while the free-living population responded to changes in nutrient and carbon concentrations. Generally, however, the high stability of the bacterial community observed in Lough Feeagh suggests that the bacterial community is relatively resilient to extreme weather events. KW - extreme weather event KW - storm KW - drought KW - bacteria KW - free-living KW - particle-associated KW - humic lake Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/w12102757 SN - 2073-4441 VL - 12 IS - 10 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -