Just out in Global Change Biology: we’ve been underestimating how much drought degrades rivers. By quite a bit!

In a meta-analysis of >1,200 effect sizes from >50 flow-reduction experiments, we found that studies with proper spatio-temporal controls detect drought impacts ~2× stronger than simpler designs. The problem: over two thirds of the literature lacks those controls.

Why does this matter? If one designs an experiment to understand the impacts of a diversion, or river drying – it’s probably because they want to know the real answer (or as close to truth as one can get to).

But perhaps more importantly, data from experiments often feed process-based models used to quantify and forecast the impacts of global change. We need to get these responses right via experiments to also get them right at scale.

This was a truly collaborative effort very nicely led by Eva Haristoy and Charlotte Evangelista, in the context of the MacLife International Associated Laboratory, bringing together INRAE ECOBIOP, the Stream Ecology group at the University of the Basque Country, and the UC Berkeley Freshwater group!

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70993