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Research and Learn

Advancing Understanding of Plant-Drought Interactions for Landscape to Regional Scale Drought Prediction

NIDIS-Supported Research

This study aims to better understand vegetation-atmosphere feedbacks that lead to, intensify, and sustain drought, and to increase understanding of interactions of vegetation within the physical climate system. An improved understanding of vegetation-drought feedbacks could contribute to improved probabilistic predictions on seasonal to climate timescales.

This project is part of the MAPP/NIDIS-supported Drought Task Force V.

Research Snapshot

Research Timeline

September 1, 2023–August 31, 2026

Principal Investigator(s)

Aleya Kaushik, University of Colorado Boulder

Co-Principal Investigator(s)

Bharat Rastogi, University of Colorado Boulder; John Miller and Lori Bruhwiler, NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory

Project Funding

NIDIS-MAPP FY 2023 Grant Competition

Focus Areas (DEWS Components)

Prediction & Forecasting

Research & Applications

What to expect from this research

This project builds on previous NIDIS/MAPP-funded research demonstrating the use of new data constraints that have not been previously considered for drought monitoring. The researchers will focus on three objectives:

Analyze the sensitivity of drought events to vegetation interactions.
Optimize biosphere model parameters relevant to energy, moisture, and carbon exchange during droughts, using atmospheric observations of carbon dioxide, carbonyl sulfide, leaf surface temperature (LST), and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF).
Improving forecasting of drought using plant stress response as a benchmark