Global climate change is increasing the frequency, magnitude and duration of droughts. Indeed, this intensification of drought events is already being experienced in many regions of the globe. Droughts that are of greater extremity and duration are expected to have large and long-lasting ecological and societal impacts, with these effects only expected to be further compounded as such drought events occurring more frequently. Despite the expected dire consequences of intensified drought, scientists are just beginning to accumulate the knowledge needed to develop a predictive understanding of the ecological consequences of more extreme, longer duration, and more frequent droughts in space and time. For this organized oral session, we bring together speakers that will present results from experiments and simulation modeling that encompass multiple sites and years to understand the ecological impacts of intensified drought. The major outcome of the session will be to synthesize how intensifying drought is affecting ecological systems in space and time and identification of future research priorities.