A landmark international study led by Chinese scientists has found that as droughts grow longer and more severe, grasslands across the world face a growing risk of collapse rather than adaptation.

The research, conducted by a team from Beijing Forestry University in collaboration with scientists from more than 120 institutions across 28 countries, provides the first global evidence that prolonged and intensified droughts sharply reduce grassland productivity. The findings were published this week in the journal Science.

The team monitored plant growth across 74 grassland and shrubland ecosystems spanning six continents to assess how they respond to varying drought conditions.

Results showed that after four consecutive years of extreme drought, productivity losses increased by about 2.5 times compared to the first year — a pattern suggesting that extended droughts could push ecosystems into a downward spiral from which recovery becomes increasingly difficult.

“If climate change continues to intensify and prolong droughts, these ecosystems may shift from low-yield states to rapid degradation,” the researchers warned.

The study adds to growing global concern about how extreme climate events could alter ecosystems in unpredictable and potentially irreversible ways.

“By quantifying these relationships through a distributed global experiment, researchers have established a critical benchmark for future studies on drought severity and duration,” peer reviewers noted in the journal.

Bianca Lopez, editor of Science, said the findings underscore how future climate extremes are likely to affect ecosystems “in novel and concerning ways,” offering a new understanding of how persistent drought could reshape the world’s grasslands.

Source: Xinhua