Droughts are a frequent natural phenomenon that has amplified globally in the 21st century and are projected to become more common and extreme in the future. Consequently, this affects the progress of drought indices and frameworks to categorize drought conditions. Several drought-related indices and variables are required to capture different features of complex drought conditions. Therefore, we explained the signs of progress of ecological drought that were ecologically expressive to promote the integration between the research on and identification of water scarcity situations and analyzed different frameworks to synthesize the drought effects on species and ecosystems. Notably, we present an inclusive review of an integrated framework for an ecological drought. The ecological drought framework affords the advantage of improved methodologies for assessing ecological drought. This is supported by research on water-limited ecosystems that incorporated several drought-related elements and indicators to produce an integrated drought framework. In this framework, we combined multiple studies on drought recovery, early warning signs, and the effects of land management interferences, along with a schematic representation of a new extension of the framework into ecological systems, to contribute to the success and long-term sustainability of ecological drought adaptation, as well as on-the-ground examples of climate-informed ecological drought management in action for an integrated framework for ecological drought. This study provides an integrated approach to the understanding of ecological drought in line with accelerated scientific advancement to promote persistence and plan for a future that irretrievably exceeds the ecosystem thresholds and new multivariate drought indices.
Keywords: Ecological drought framework; Ecosystem thresholds; Integrated framework; Multivariate drought indices; Water scarcity situations.
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