Climate change hampers endangered species by stronger water-related stresses

The international research community is beginning to realise that climate extremes may be more powerful drivers of vegetation change and species extinctions than slow-and-steady climatic changes, but the causal mechanisms of such changes are presently unknown. In order to quantify oxygen and drought stress with causal measures, we focused on interacting meteorological, soil physical, microbial, and plant physiological processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. Contribution to the EGU General Assembly 2011.