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SUMMARY:Observing Large-Scale Vegetation Response to Rainfall Variability
DESCRIPTION:\nAndrew Feldman\nNASA Goddard Space Flight Center\nMonday December 1, 2025, 12 PM ET\nIn-Person Seminar Info:\nThis seminar will be held at noon at Rm 4102 of ESSIC, 5825 University Research Ct. College Park, MD 20740. Refreshments will be available for those who attend in person, and a Zoom option is also available for virtual attendees.\nClick here to RSVP for attendance\n \nAbstract:\nVegetation directly influences global water, carbon, and energy cycles by regulating fluxes between the surface and lower atmosphere. There is therefore a need to understand vegetation functioning (e.g., photosynthesis, transpiration) response to climate forcing and feedbacks on the atmosphere. To a first order, it is well understood where vegetation is limited by water, temperature, and/or light globally at seasonal timescales. However, in practice, vegetation functioning is highly spatiotemporally variable due to a range of factors; even in dry locations, the total water availability year to year only explains a fraction of the vegetation functioning variability. Here, I evaluate vegetation responses to two sources of less-explored variability: daily rainfall intermittency (rainfall pulses and dry spell dynamics) as well as sub-seasonal scale droughts. I ask: what are the spatial patterns for how vegetation responds to rainfall variability and extremes? First, I present a global study that evaluates vegetation sensitivity to effects of daily rainfall variability. We find that satellite-based vegetation indices are sensitive to daily rainfall variability across 42 percent of the vegetated land surfaces, and follow moisture gradients in their signs of responses. Second, I present results from a NASA ECOSTRESS study evaluating gradients of ecosystem sensitivity to drought. We find that there is a tendency for drier ecosystems to have higher drought sensitivities, but with large spatial variability of responses. Ultimately, these results highlight the complexity of vegetation functioning and coupling with the atmosphere under moisture variability at sub-seasonal timescales. Furthermore, these rainfall variability features are only becoming more variable.\n \nBiosketch:\nAndrew is an associate research scientist in the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and research faculty at University of Maryland ESSIC in Maryland, USA. His main goal is to understand how environmental variability and extremes influence global plant function and evaporation, and the consequent global water cycle responses. Drylands, such as in the western U.S., are a large focus of his work. He is currently a member of the NASA ECOSTRESS Science Team and co-lead of the proposed NASA Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID) dryland field campaign. Andrew received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2021 in Civil and Environmental Engineering. In 2016, he graduated from Drexel University with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering. Andrew was formerly a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow.\n \nHybrid (In-Person & Virtual):\nThis is a hybrid (in-person & virtual) seminar with refreshments served at Rm 4102, 5825 University Ct, MD\nEvent site: https://go.umd.edu/feldman\nZoom Webinar: https://go.umd.edu/essicseminarwebinars\nZoom Meeting ID: 918 7733 3086\nZoom password: essic\nUS Toll: +13017158592\nGlobal call-in numbers: https://umd.zoom.us/u/aMElEpvNu\nAdd to Google Calendar\n \nFor IT assistance:\nCazzy Medley: cazzy@umd.edu\n\nResources:\nSeminar schedule & archive: https://go.umd.edu/essicseminar\nSeminar Google calendar: https://go.umd.edu/essicseminarcalendar\nSeminar recordings on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ESSICUMD\n
URL:https://essic.umd.edu/events/observing-large-scale-vegetation-response-to-rainfall-variability/
ORGANIZER;CN=John Xun Yang:MAILTO:jxyang@umd.edu
CATEGORIES:Fall 2025
LOCATION:5825 University Research Ct, College Park, MD 20740
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://essic.umd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FeldmanHeadshot-Andrew-F.-Feldman.jpg
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