Late‐season drought exerts more negative effects on plant diversity and cover than early‐season drought through changing soil moisture in a semi‐arid grassland

Miao, Renhui; Miao, Yuan; Liu, Yuli; Guo, Ming; Fu, Guangya; Xiao, Rui; Yang, Zhongling; Li, Guoyong; Chen, Zhijie; Han, Shijie

doi:10.1111/jvs.13151

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Previous studies have shown that rainfall changes can significantly affect species richness, Simpson dominance index and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index [52] but that they have no significant effect on Pielou evenness index [53]. Experiments simulating extreme drought have found that drought can reduce plant height, coverage and diversity, and ultimately reduce productivity [54]. Consistent with the results of previous studies, the CWM height and coverage of −60% and −60 d in our study were reduced, and −60% significantly reduced the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and increased Simpson dominance index.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Zhang

Zuo

2023

IJERPH

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Grassland use patterns, water and nutrients are the main determinants of ecosystem structure and function in semiarid grasslands. However, few studies have reported how the interactive effects of rainfall changes and nitrogen deposition influence the recovery of semiarid grasslands degraded by grazing. In this study, a simulated grazing, increasing and decreasing rainfall, nitrogen deposition test platform was constructed, and the regulation mechanism of vegetation characteristics and productivity were studied. We found that grazing decreased plant community height (CWMheight) and litter and increased plant density. Increasing rainfall by 60% from May to August (+60%) increased CWMheight; decreasing rainfall by 60% from May to August (–60%) and by 100% from May to June (−60 d) decreased CWMheight and coverage; −60 d, +60% and increasing rainfall by 100% from May to June (+60 d) increased plant density; −60% increased the Simpson dominance index (D index) but decreased the Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H index); −60 d decreased the aboveground biomass (ABG), and −60% increased the underground biomass (BGB) in the 10–60 cm layer. Nitrogen addition decreased species richness and the D index and increased the H index and AGB. Rainfall and soil nitrogen directly affect AGB; grazing and rainfall can also indirectly affect AGB by inducing changes in CWMheight; grazing indirectly affects BGB by affecting plant density and soil nitrogen. The results of this study showed that in the semiarid grassland of Inner Mongolia, grazing in the nongrowing season and grazing prohibition in the growing season can promote grassland recovery, continuous drought in the early growing season will have dramatic impacts on productivity, nitrogen addition has a certain impact on the species composition of vegetation, and the impact on productivity will not appear in the short term.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Zhang

Zuo

2023

IJERPH

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“…The relationship between abiotic conditions and phylogenetic diversity of co-flowering modules will be important to elucidate, as phylogenetic diversity promotes ecosystem stability and soil microbial diversity [81,82]. Low soil moisture may drive low phylogenetic diversity, as it causes declines in species richness and biomass production [83–86]. However, soil moisture is affected by snowmelt timing and precipitation from summer thunderstorms and has significant interannual variability [87–90], which would not explain our consistent results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic diversity of flowering plants declines throughout the growing season across a subalpine elevational gradient

Veldhuisen,

Enquist,

Dlugosch

2023

Preprint

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Co-flowering is a potential facilitative mechanism for plants to overcome pollinator declines and phenological mismatches by attracting more pollinators to a multi-species patch. Due to associated competition, facilitation is expected to be more beneficial among more distantly related plants that compete less, and more prevalent in stressful conditions where benefits outweigh potential costs. We test a novel set of predictions that follow from these hypotheses, including that modules of co-flowering species in montane plant communities will be associated with i) increased fitness, ii) phylogenetic overdispersion, and ii) higher elevations. We quantified flowering phenology and fitness of plants across an elevational gradient in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, identified co-flowering modules using a network approach, and analyzed the phylogenetic distribution of co-flowering modules. We found that fitness correlated positively with co-flowering across elevations, but the correlation was strongest at high-elevation sites. Phylogenetic dispersion increased with elevation but declined throughout the growing season. Late-season modules were more underdispersed at all elevations than early-season modules. By combining analyses of phenological timing, network structure, environmental stress, fitness, and phylogenetic patterns, our results reveal that plant communities may lose phylogenetic diversity as conditions become hotter and drier and climate change alters flowering phenology and pollination networks.

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“…Similarly, there is some evidence that precipitation patterns matter most for ecosystem function during drought years (Felton et al., 2020), but other research challenges this notion (Liu, Jin, et al., 2022). Evidence is also mixed regarding the sensitivity of ecosystems to drought timing/seasonality (Denton et al., 2017; Felton & Goldsmith, 2023; Hallett et al., 2019; McAuliffe & Hamerlynck, 2010; Miao et al., 2022) as well as drought duration (Carroll et al., 2021; Estiarte et al., 2016; Evans et al., 2011; Jentsch et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2021). Indeed, assessments of the relative impacts of the magnitude versus the duration of drought and how effects of the duration of drought may be contingent on magnitude are critically needed (Felton et al., 2021).…”

Section: Looking Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field experiments have enhanced our understanding of drought impacts on terrestrial ecosystems—But where do we go from here?

Knapp,

Condon,

Folks

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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We review results from field experiments that simulate drought, an ecologically impactful global change threat that is predicted to increase in magnitude, extent, duration and frequency. Our goal is to address, from primarily an ecosystem perspective, the questions ‘What have we learned from drought experiments?’ and ‘Where do we go from here?’. Drought experiments are among the most numerous climate change manipulations and have been deployed across a wide range of biomes, although most are conducted in short‐statured, water‐limited ecosystems. Collectively, these experiments have enabled ecologists to quantify the negative responses to drought that occur for most aspects of ecosystem structure and function. Multiple meta‐analyses of responses have also enabled comparisons of relative effect sizes of drought across hundreds of sites, particularly for carbon cycle metrics. Overall, drought experiments have provided strong evidence that ecosystem sensitivity to drought increases with aridity, but that plant traits associated with aridity are not necessarily predictive of drought resistance. There is also intriguing evidence that as drought magnitude or duration increases to extreme levels, plant strategies may shift from drought tolerance to drought escape/avoidance. We highlight three areas where more drought experiments are needed to advance our understanding. First, because drought is intensifying in multiple ways, experiments are needed that address alterations in drought magnitude versus duration, timing and/or frequency (individually and interactively). Second, drivers of drought may be shifting—from precipitation deficits to rising atmospheric demand for water—and disentangling how ecosystems respond to changes in hydrological ‘supply versus demand’ is critical for understanding drought impacts in the future. Finally, more attention should be focussed on post‐drought recovery periods since legacies of drought can affect ecosystem functioning much longer than the drought itself. We conclude with a call for a fundamental shift in the focus of drought experiments from those designed primarily as ‘response experiments’, quantifying the magnitude of change in ecosystem structure and function, to more ‘mechanistic experiments’—those that explicitly manipulate ecological processes or attributes thought to underpin drought responses. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Late‐season drought exerts more negative effects on plant diversity and cover than early‐season drought through changing soil moisture in a semi‐arid grassland

Cited by 6 publications

References 69 publications

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Phylogenetic diversity of flowering plants declines throughout the growing season across a subalpine elevational gradient

Field experiments have enhanced our understanding of drought impacts on terrestrial ecosystems—But where do we go from here?

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