Climatology of Ecological Drought in the Mid-Atlantic United States

Drought is a complex phenomenon that has great impacts on agricultural, economic, hydrological, and ecological systems. Ecological drought can be defined as a period with reduced precipitation levels which can positively or negatively impact an ecosystem. These impacts can occur at the species, community, and ecosystem scale. Examples of these impacts include changes in species scale growth rates, reductions in plant abundance, and changes in canopy structure through reductions in leaf area index. An improved understanding of ecological drought impacts will help to ensure we maintain healthy ecosystems by developing appropriate adaptation, conservation, and mitigation strategies. However, to implement these strategies we must increase our localized understanding of what ecological drought looks like. This work will enhance our understanding of ecological drought through the development of an ecological drought climatology for the Mid-Atlantic United States from 1960 to 2020. This climatology will explore the frequency, intensity, duration, and trends of ecological drought events at both the ecoregion and climate division level. This work will utilize 3 forms of classification including fixed drought thresholds, impacts based thresholds, and objective drought severity thresholds.