Alpine grassland plants grow earlier and faster but biomass remains unchanged over 35 years of climate change

Wang, Hao; Liu, Huiying; Cao, Guangmin; Ma, Zhijun; Li, Yikang; Zhang, Fawei; Zhao, Xia; Zhao, Xinquan; Jiang, Lin; Sanders, Nathan J.; Classen, Aimée T.; He, Jin‐Sheng

doi:10.1111/ele.13474

Cited by 144 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…It indicates that earlier spring phenology could aggravate the suppression of carbon assimilation in autumn in drier areas. The negative lagged effect of earlier BGS on the autumn NPP was consistent with a field-measured result on the TP [53]. Previous studies also reported a similar linkage between spring phenology and ecosystem productivity in the subsequent seasons for subalpine forests and temperate grasslands [25,54].…”

Section: Direct and Lagged Effects Of Spring Phenology On Nppsupporting

confidence: 88%

Direct and Lagged Effects of Spring Phenology on Net Primary Productivity in the Alpine Grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau

2020

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As a key biotic factor, phenology exerts fundamental influences on ecosystem carbon sequestration. However, whether spring phenology affects the subsequent seasonal ecosystem productivity and the underlying resource limitation mechanism remains unclear for the alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). In this study, we investigated the direct and lagged seasonal responses of net primary productivity (NPP) to the beginning of growing season (BGS) along a precipitation gradient by integrating field observations, remote sensing monitoring and ecosystem model simulations. The results revealed distinct response patterns of seasonal NPP to BGS. Specifically, the BGS showed a significant and negative correlation with spring NPP (R = −0.73, p < 0.01), as evidenced by the direct boosting effects of earlier BGS on spring NPP. Moreover, spring NPP was more responsive to BGS in areas with more annual precipitation. The boosting effects of earlier BGS on NPP tended to weaken in summer compared with that in spring. Sequentially, BGS exhibited stronger positive correlation with autumn NPP in areas with less annual precipitation, which suggested the enhanced lagged suppressing effects of earlier spring phenology on ecosystem carbon assimilation during the later growing season under aggravated water stress. Overall, the strengthened NPP in spring was offset by its decrement in autumn, resulting in no obvious relationship between BGS and annual NPP (R = −0.34, p > 0.05) for the entire grasslands on the TP. The findings of this study imply that the lagged effects of phenology on the ecosystem productivity during the subsequent seasons should not be neglected in the future studies.

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Section: Direct and Lagged Effects Of Spring Phenology On Nppsupporting

confidence: 88%

Direct and Lagged Effects of Spring Phenology on Net Primary Productivity in the Alpine Grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau

2020

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“…6). This demonstrates the possible negative effect of temperature rising on AGB that has been widely reported (De Boeck et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2020), particularly in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems (Ma et al, 2010b). This harmful influence of warming on AGB is explainable.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

“…Dynamics of grassland biomass are driven by complex interactions among a series of environmental attributes, among which climate is one of the most predominant drivers (De Boeck et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2020). The magnitudes and directions of climate change effects on AGB can vary across different local environments as well.…”

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confidence: 99%

Aboveground biomass in Inner Mongolian temperate grasslands decreases under climate warming

Wang

Luo

Huang

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Grassland aboveground biomass (AGB) is a critical component of the global carbon cycle and reflects ecosystem productivity. Although it is widely acknowledged that dynamics of grassland biomass are significantly regulated by climate change, in situ evidence at large spatiotemporal scales is limited. Here, we combine biomass measurements from six long-term (> 30 years) experiments and data in existing literatures to explore the spatiotemporal changes in AGB in Inner Mongolian temperate grasslands. We show that, on average, annual AGB over the past four decades is 2,561 ka ha−1, 1,496 kg ha−1 and 835 kg ha−1, respectively, in meadow steppe, typical steppe and desert steppe in Inner Mongolia. The spatiotemporal changes of AGB are regulated by interactions of climatic attributes, edaphic properties, grazing intensity and grassland type. Using a machine learning-based approach, we map annual AGB (from 1981 to 2100) across the Inner Mongolian grassland at the spatial resolution of 1 km. We find that on the regional scale, meadow steppe has the highest annual AGB, followed by typical and desert steppe. During 1981–2019, the average annual AGB generally exhibited a declining trend across all the three types of grassland. Under future climate warming, AGB in the study region could continue to decrease. On average, compared with the historical AGB (i.e., average of 1981–2019), the AGB at the end of this century (i.e., average of 2080–2100) would decrease by 14 % under RCP4.5 and 28 % under RCP8.5, respectively. The decreases in AGB under warming show large disparities across different grassland types and future climate change scenarios. Our results demonstrate the accuracy of predictions in AGB using a machine learning-based approach driven by several readily obtainable environmental variables; and provide new data at large scale and fine resolution extrapolated from field measurements.

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“…The average altitude of TP is >4000m, and MAT is <0°C, the highest monthly average temperature in <10°C, and the MAP is 20–487mm [ 23 ]. There are three grassland types, namely, alpine meadow, alpine grassland, and alpine desert from southeast to northwest [ 24 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional response of grassland productivity to changing environment conditions influenced by limiting factors

Hou

Yan

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Regional differences and regulatory mechanisms of vegetation productivity response to changing environmental conditions constitute a core issue in macroecological researches. To verify the main limiting factors of different macrosystems [temperature-limited Tibetan Plateau (TP), precipitation-limited Mongolian Plateau (MP), and nutrient-limited Loess Plateau (LP)], we conducted a comparative survey of the east-west grassland transects on the three plateaus and explored the factors limiting regional productivity and their underlying mechanisms. The results showed that aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of LP (109.10 ± 16.76 g m −2 yr −1 ) was significantly higher than that of MP (66.71 ± 11.11 g m −2 yr −1 ) and TP (57.02 ± 10.59 g m −2 yr −1 ). The response rate of ANPP with environmental changes was different among different plateaus, being closely related to the main limiting factors. On MP, this was precipitation, on LP it was temperature and nutrients, and on TP, it was non-specific, reflecting restriction by the extremely low temperature. After autocorrelation screening of environmental factors, different regions exhibited different productivity response mechanisms. MP was mainly influenced by temperature and precipitation, LP was influenced by temperature and nutrient, and TP was influenced by nutrient, reflecting the modifying effect of the main limiting factors. The effect of each regional environment on ANPP was 72.56% on average and only 27.18% after simple regional integration. The regional model could optimize the simulation error of the integrated model, and the relative deviations in MP, LP, and TP were reduced by 31.76%, 17.22%, and 2.23%, respectively. These findings indicate that the grasslands on the three plateaus may have different or even the opposite mechanisms to control productivity.

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Alpine grassland plants grow earlier and faster but biomass remains unchanged over 35 years of climate change

Cited by 144 publications

References 58 publications

Direct and Lagged Effects of Spring Phenology on Net Primary Productivity in the Alpine Grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau

Direct and Lagged Effects of Spring Phenology on Net Primary Productivity in the Alpine Grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau

Aboveground biomass in Inner Mongolian temperate grasslands decreases under climate warming

Regional response of grassland productivity to changing environment conditions influenced by limiting factors

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