Long term experimental drought alters community plant trait variation, not trait means, across three semiarid grasslands

Luo, Wentao; Zuo, Xiaoan; Griffin‐Nolan, Robert J.; Xu, Chi; Ma, Wang; Song, Lin; Helsen, Kenny; Lin, Yingchao; Cai, Jiangping; Yu, Qiang; Wang, Zhengwen; Smith, Melinda D.; Han, Xingguo; Knapp, Alan K.

doi:10.1007/s11104-019-04176-w

Cited by 37 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…At the onset of each growing season (May–August) of each year, the rainout shelter roofs were installed and then removed at the end of the growing season (see Knapp et al., 2015; Luo, Zuo, et al., 2018 for further details on the rain‐out shelter). Each 6 × 6 m plot was hydrologically isolated by installing aluminium flashing to a depth of 1 m around the perimeter to reduce surface and subsurface water flow (Luo et al., 2019). The effects of rainout shelters on the light environment were small, permitting more than 90% penetration of photosynthetically active radiation (Luo et al., 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each 6 × 6 m plot was hydrologically isolated by installing aluminium flashing to a depth of 1 m around the perimeter to reduce surface and subsurface water flow (Luo et al., 2019). The effects of rainout shelters on the light environment were small, permitting more than 90% penetration of photosynthetically active radiation (Luo et al., 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Species asynchrony stabilises productivity under extreme drought across Northern China grasslands

Muraina¹,

et al. 2021

Journal of Ecology

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Biodiversity can stabilise productivity through different mechanisms, such as asynchronous species responses to environmental variability and species stability. Global changes, like intensified drought, could negatively affect species richness, species asynchrony and species stability, but it is unclear how changes in these mechanisms will affect the stability of above‐ground primary productivity (ANPP) across ecosystems. We studied the effects of a 4‐year extreme drought on ANPP stability and the underlying mechanisms (species richness, species asynchrony and species stability) across six grasslands in Northern China. We also assessed the relative importance of these mechanisms in determining ANPP stability under extreme drought. We found that extreme drought decreased ANPP stability, species richness, species asynchrony and species stability across the six grasslands. However, structural equation modelling revealed that species asynchrony, not species richness or species stability, was the most important mechanism promoting stability of ANPP, regardless of drought across the six grasslands. Synthesis. Our results suggest that species asynchrony, not species richness and species stability, consistently buffers ecosystem stability against extreme drought across and within grasslands spanning a broad precipitation gradient. Thus, species asynchrony may be a more general mechanism for promoting stability of ANPP in grasslands in the face of intensified drought.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species asynchrony stabilises productivity under extreme drought across Northern China grasslands

Muraina¹,

et al. 2021

Journal of Ecology

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“…Experimental drought changed biodiversity that can be explained by species turnover/re-ordering caused by the cumulative effect of extreme drought (Additional le 1 Table S1). Experimental drought can modify species either through shifts in genotypic abundance and phenotypic plasticity by acting as an environment lter [34,35]. On a temporal scale, there was no signi cant difference in species richness under extreme drought, which is contrary to other ndings that suggested that plant species richness is more sensitive to drought in the arid ecosystem [34,36].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Experimental drought can modify species either through shifts in genotypic abundance and phenotypic plasticity by acting as an environment lter [34,35]. On a temporal scale, there was no signi cant difference in species richness under extreme drought, which is contrary to other ndings that suggested that plant species richness is more sensitive to drought in the arid ecosystem [34,36]. One possible explanation for this difference could be the low soil moisture caused by extreme drought reduced the number of reproductive buds in more species [37,38].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drought of early time in growing season decreases community aboveground biomass, but increases belowground biomass in a desert steppe

Zuo

Yue

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: Increasing drought induced by global climate changes is altering the structure and function of grassland ecosystems. However, there is a lack of understanding of how drought affects the allocation and trade-off of above- and belowground biomass in desert steppe. We conducted a four-year (2015-2018) drought experiment to examine the responses of community above-and belowground biomass (AGB and BGB) to manipulated drought and natural drought in the early period of growing season (from March to June) in a desert steppe. We compared the associations of drought with species diversity (species richness and density), community-weighted means (CWM) of five traits, and soil factors (soil Water, soil carbon content, and soil nitrogen content) for grass communities. Meanwhile, we used the structural equation modeling (SEM) to elucidate whether drought affects AGB and BGB by altering species diversity, functional traits and soil factors.Results: We found that drought reduced the species richness, and species modified the CWM of traits to cope with drought. Manipulated drought had the effect on soil water content, but not on soil carbon and nitrogen content. We also found that the experimental and natural drought decreased AGB, while natural drought increased BGB. AGB was correlated with species richness, density, plant height and soil water, while BGB was correlated with CWM of plant height, CWM of specific leaf area, CWM of leaf dry matter content, CWM of leaf nitrogen content, soil water, soil carbon and nitrogen content. The SEM results indicated that the experimental and natural drought indirectly decreased AGB by reducing species richness and plant height, while natural drought and soil nitrogen content directly affected BGB. Conclusions: These results suggest that species richness and functional traits can modulate the effects of drought on AGB, however natural drought and soil nitrogen determine BGB. Our findings demonstrate that the long-term observation and experiment are necessary to understand the underlying mechanism of the allocation and trade-off of community above-and belowground biomass.

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Summer aridity rather than management shapes fitness‐related functional traits of the threatened mountain plant Arnica montana

Stanik

Lampei

Rosenthal

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Semi‐natural mountain grasslands are increasingly exposed to environmental stress under climate change. However, which are the environmental factors that limit plants in these grasslands? Also, is the present management effective against these changes? Fitness‐related functional traits may offer a way to detect changes in performance and provide new insights into their vulnerability to climate change. We investigated changes in performance and variability of functional traits of the mountain grassland target species Arnica montana along a climate gradient in Central German low mountain ranges. This gradient represents at its lower end climate conditions that are expected at its upper end under future climate change. We measured vegetative, generative, and physiological traits to account for multiple ways of plant responses to the environment. Using mixed effects and multivariate models, we evaluated changes in trait values among individuals as well as the variability of their populations in order to assess performance under changing summer aridity and different management regimes. Fitness‐related performance of most traits showed strongly positive associations with reduced summer aridity at higher elevations, while only specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content showed no association. This suggests a higher performance level at less arid montane sites and that the physiological traits are less sensitive to this climate change factor. The coefficient of variation of almost all traits declined steadily with decreasing site aridity. We suggest that this reduced variability indicates a lower environmental stress level for A. montana toward its environmental optimum at montane elevations, especially because the trait performance increased simultaneously. Surprisingly, management factors and habitat characteristics had only low influence on both trait performance and variability. In summary, summer aridity had a stronger effect to shape the trait performance and variability of A. montana under increased environmental stress than management and other habitat characteristics.

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Long term experimental drought alters community plant trait variation, not trait means, across three semiarid grasslands

Cited by 37 publications

References 45 publications

Species asynchrony stabilises productivity under extreme drought across Northern China grasslands

Species asynchrony stabilises productivity under extreme drought across Northern China grasslands

Drought of early time in growing season decreases community aboveground biomass, but increases belowground biomass in a desert steppe

Summer aridity rather than management shapes fitness‐related functional traits of the threatened mountain plant Arnica montana

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