Field experiments underestimate aboveground biomass response to drought

Kröel‐Dulay, György; Mojzes, Andrea; Szitár, Katalin; Bahn, Michael; Batáry, Péter; Beier, Claus; Bilton, Mark C.; Boeck, Hans J. De; Dukes, Jeffrey S.; Estiarte, Marc; Holub, Petr; Jentsch, Anke; Schmidt, Inger Kappel; Kreyling, Jüergen; Reinsch, Sabine; Larsen, Klaus Steenberg; Sternberg, Marcelo; Tielbӧrger, Katja; Tietema, Albert; Vicca, Sara; Peñuelas, Josep

doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01685-3

Cited by 60 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…These studies, however, often struggle to attribute changes to specific environmental drivers, highlighting the need for experimental approaches (Hoover et al, 2014). However, most experimental studies to date have focused on the effect of precipitation on ecosystem functioning rather than explicitly investigating the role of functional traits in mediating community changes (Grime et al, 2000; Hoover et al, 2014; Jamieson et al, 1998; Kröel-Dulay et al, 2022). Furthermore, whether differences in community-level functional traits are driven by changes in community composition, intraspecific variation, or both, remains unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimentally induced drought and growing season stage modulate community-level functional traits in a temperate grassland

Fenollosa

Fernandes

Héctor

et al. 2023

Preprint

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1.Extreme precipitation events are expected to become more intense and frequent with climate change. This climatic shift may impact the structure and dynamics of natural communities and the key ecosystem services they provide. Changes in species abundance under these extreme conditions are thought to be driven by functional traits, morpho-physiological characteristics of an organism that impact its fitness. Future environmental conditions may, therefore, favour different functional traits to those in present-day communities. 2. Here, we measure functional traits on 586 vascular plants in a temperate grassland where precipitation has been experimentally manipulated for six years. We calculated community-weighted means of five functional traits (plant height, leaf dry matter content, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, and leaf phosphorus concentration) and compared community-weighted means between three levels of precipitation: drought (-50%), irrigated (+50%), and control. Additionally, we contrasted treatments at two different timings along the growing season: mid-season and late-season. 3. We expected altered community-weighted means for traits associated with a conservative use of water that will result from increased summer stress-induced intraspecific variability in the mid-season and from community composition changes in the late-season, after the field is cut, a common management action across most European grasslands. 4. In the drought treatment, we found significantly lower community-weighted mean plant height and leaf dry matter content. However, we only observed these differences after the mid-season cut. We also observed an increase in leaf phosphorus concentration in the drought treatment before the mid-season cut. A combination of changes in community composition and intraspecific variation contributed to these differences, with community composition being more important after the cut. Species with higher height, leaf dry matter content, and lower leaf thickness showed a more pronounced abundance decline at the drought plots. We observed no changes in functional traits community-weighted means in the irrigated treatment compared to those in control and drought treatments. 5. Synthesis. Our results suggest how the functional trait composition of grassland communities may shift under climate change-induced drought, stressing the interacting effects with growing season stages.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimentally induced drought and growing season stage modulate community-level functional traits in a temperate grassland

Fenollosa

Fernandes

Héctor

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Furthermore, Kröel‐Dulay et al. (2022) found field experiments (with rainout shelters) underestimate the plant biomass response to drought. We also detected an interactive effect of precipitation, mowing intensity, and mowing season on plant biomass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of mowing, spring precipitation, soil nutrients, and enzymes on grassland productivity

Reinhart

Komatsu

Vermeire

2022

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

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Little research has assessed how the timing and intensity of grazing might affect plant biomass, available nutrients, soil extracellular enzyme activity (EEA), and how climate change might influence these responses. We tested the effect of two spring precipitation schemes (70, 100% of ambient), two mowing intensities (moderate, severe), and two mowing season treatments (June, October) on plant and soil properties. We detected an interactive effect of precipitation, mowing intensity, and mowing season on plant biomass. When plots were mowed at a moderate intensity, water reductions had irregular effects on plant biomass depending on the mowing season. Plant biomass was also 11% greater in plots mowed at moderate than at severe intensities. Most soil nutrients were unaffected by treatments except for calcium. Soil EEA was unaffected by treatments; however, the activity of a phosphorus (P)-acquisition enzyme was more than four times greater than the activity of nitrogen (N)-and carbon-acquisition enzymes. A substantial amount (adjusted R 2 = .51) of plot-to-plot variation in plant biomass was explained by three soil properties especially an N-acquisition enzyme and to a lesser degree by plant available P and soil pH. The grassland had a high degree of natural buffering capacity as most soil properties were resistant to shifts in 6-yr spring precipitation and 5-yr simulated grazing intensity and season. Grassland plant biomass varied by treatments and was seemingly limited by biogeochemical constraints especially the prevalent need to mobilize P and a secondary need to acquire N as plant biomass increased.

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“…Trenches remained permanently installed, thus soil water content (SWC) recovered mainly through water input from precipitation. Because trees were potentially able to access some small amount of water from the untrenched areas adjacent to the rainout shelters, the treatment likely underestimated drought effects as recently shown for many drought experiments when compared to natural droughts (Kröel‐Dulay et al, 2022).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amplifying effects of recurrent drought on the dynamics of tree growth and water use in a subalpine forest

Oberleitner

Hartmann

Hasibeder

et al. 2022

Plant Cell & Environment

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Despite recent advances in our understanding of drought impacts on tree functioning, we lack knowledge about the dynamic responses of mature trees to recurrent drought stress. At a subalpine forest site, we assessed the effects of three years of recurrent experimental summer drought on tree growth and water relations of Larix decidua Mill. and Picea abies (L. Karst.), two common European conifers representative for contrasting water‐use strategies. We combined dendrometer and xylem sap flow measurements with analyses of xylem anatomy and non‐structural carbohydrates and their carbon‐isotope composition. Recurrent drought increased the effects of soil moisture limitation on growth and xylogenesis, and to a lesser extent on xylem sap flow. P. abies showed stronger growth responses to recurrent drought, reduced starch concentrations in branches and increased water‐use efficiency when compared to L. decidua. Despite comparatively larger maximum tree water deficits than in P. abies, xylem formation of L. decidua was less affected by drought, suggesting a stronger capacity of rehydration or lower cambial turgor thresholds for growth. Our study shows that recurrent drought progressively increases impacts on mature trees of both species, which suggests that in a future climate increasing drought frequency could impose strong legacies on carbon and water dynamics of treeline species.

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Field experiments underestimate aboveground biomass response to drought

Cited by 60 publications

References 44 publications

Experimentally induced drought and growing season stage modulate community-level functional traits in a temperate grassland

Experimentally induced drought and growing season stage modulate community-level functional traits in a temperate grassland

Effects of mowing, spring precipitation, soil nutrients, and enzymes on grassland productivity

Amplifying effects of recurrent drought on the dynamics of tree growth and water use in a subalpine forest

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