DROUGHT IMPACTS ON RANGELANDS HAVE INCREASED GLOBALLY OVER THE LAST CENTURY. RESEARCH PREDICTS THAT THESE DROUGHTS WILL BECOME MORE FREQUENT, EXTREME, AND SPATIALLY EXTENSIVE.THE GOALS FOR THIS RESEARCH PROJECT INVOLVE 1) UNDERSTANDING SENSITIVITY OF GLOBAL, TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS TO EXTREME DROUGHT AND2) HELPING U.S. RANGE MANAGERS ADAPT TO AND PREPARE FOR DROUGHT. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, THE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW WILL SYNTHESIZE AN EXISTING MULTI-YEAR DATASET FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DROUGHT EXPERIMENT (IDE) WITH THE HELP OF A PRIMARY MENTOR. THE IDE IS A COORDINATED, GLOBAL NETWORK OF EXTREME DROUGHT EXPERIMENTS AT 122 SITES.THE OBJECTIVES FOR THIS POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP INCLUDE: 1) MANAGING THE EXISTING IDE DATABASE; 2) ANALYZING HOW SHORT-TERM DROUGHT AFFECTS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLANT PRODUCTION AND PRECIPITATION (I.E. ECOSYSTEM SENSITIVITY); 3) IDENTIFYING HOW PLANT SPECIES COMPOSITION, ESPECIALLY DESIRED FORAGE SPECIES FOR LIVESTOCK, CHANGE IN RESPONSE TO A 4-YEAR DROUGHT AND HOW THESE SHIFTS CONTRIBUTE TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLANT PRODUCTION AND PRECIPITATION; AND, 4) DISSEMINATING INFORMATION THROUGH PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS, THE IDE WEBSITE, AND REPORTS ON HOW DROUGHT AFFECTS PLANT PRODUCTION AND COMPOSITION OF DESIRABLE FORAGE SPECIES TO USDA PARTNERS AND RANGELAND MANAGERS AT U.S. IDE SITES. THIS PROJECT WILL HELP ADVANCE SCIENCE AND DROUGHT ADAPTATION IN RANGELANDS BY HELPING RANGELAND MANAGERS WITH SHORT-TERM DECISION-MAKING AND LONG-TERM PLANNING IN THE FACE OF EXTREME DROUGHT.