Assessing the Response of Terrestrial Ecosystems to Potential Changes in Precipitation

Weltzin, Jake F.; Loik, Michael E.; Schwinning, Susanne; Williams, David G.; Fay, Philip A.; Haddad, Brent M.; Harte, John; Huxman, Travis E.; Knapp, Alan K.; Lin, Guanghui; Pockman, William T.; Shaw, Rebecca; Small, E. E.; Smith, Melinda D.; Smith, Stanley D.; Tissue, David T.; Zak, John C.

doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0941:atrote]2.0.co;2

Cited by 739 publications

(639 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…This result is actually consistent with previous modelled effects of rainfall on rates of N-cycling microbial activities 26 . On the other hand, plant N uptake usually increases with rainfall due to the stimulation of higher water availability 27,28 . We observed increased ANPP with increasing AI, pointing to potentially higher net plant N accumulation (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aridity threshold in controlling ecosystem nitrogen cycling in arid and semi-arid grasslands

et al. 2014

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Higher aridity and more extreme rainfall events in drylands are predicted due to climate change. Yet, it is unclear how changing precipitation regimes may affect nitrogen (N) cycling, especially in areas with extremely high aridity. Here we investigate soil N isotopic values (d 15 N) along a 3,200 km aridity gradient and reveal a hump-shaped relationship between soil d 15 N and aridity index (AI) with a threshold at AI ¼ 0.32. Variations of foliar d 15 N, the abundance of nitrification and denitrification genes, and metabolic quotient along the gradient provide further evidence for the existence of this threshold. Data support the hypothesis that the increase of gaseous N loss is higher than the increase of net plant N accumulation with increasing AI below AI ¼ 0.32, while the opposite is favoured above this threshold. Our results highlight the importance of N-cycling microbes in extremely dry areas and suggest different controlling factors of N-cycling on either side of the threshold.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aridity threshold in controlling ecosystem nitrogen cycling in arid and semi-arid grasslands

et al. 2014

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“…A key feature of dryland ecosystems is the high interannual variability in their precipitation regime [115]. While the importance of precipitation as a key driver of ecosystem dynamics and socio-economical development in drylands is largely acknowledged [144,145], previous climate change research has mostly evaluated the impacts of changes in the mean climate variables (but see [61,146]). Therefore, it remains largely unknown how dryland ecosystems may respond to variation in the precipitation regime.…”

Section: Research Gaps and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

It is getting hotter in here: determining and projecting the impacts of global environmental change on drylands

Maestre

Salguero‐Gómez

Quero

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

264

209

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Drylands occupy large portions of the Earth, and are a key terrestrial biome from the socio-ecological point of view. In spite of their extent and importance, the impacts of global environmental change on them remain poorly understood. In this introduction, we review some of the main expected impacts of global change in drylands, quantify research efforts on the topic, and highlight how the articles included in this theme issue contribute to fill current gaps in our knowledge. Our literature analyses identify key under-studied areas that need more research (e.g. countries such as Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Somalia, and deserts such as the Thar, Kavir and Taklamakan), and indicate that most global change research carried out to date in drylands has been done on a unidisciplinary basis. The contributions included here use a wide array of organisms (from micro-organisms to humans), spatial scales (from local to global) and topics (from plant demography to poverty alleviation) to examine key issues to the socio-ecological impacts of global change in drylands. These papers highlight the complexities and difficulties associated with the prediction of such impacts. They also identify the increased use of long-term experiments and multidisciplinary approaches as priority areas for future dryland research. Major advances in our ability to predict and understand global change impacts on drylands can be achieved by explicitly considering how the responses of individuals, populations and communities will in turn affect ecosystem services. Future research should explore linkages between these responses and their effects on water and climate, as well as the provisioning of services for human development and well-being.

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“…For example, a study in America indicated that the crop yields would be reduced by 2 to 4% if current water erosion rates continue for the next 10 decades (Trimble and Crosson, 2000). New reports claim that there is a clear relation between erosion and changes in carbon cycle and precipitation (Weltzin et al, 2003;Nearing et al, 2005). Measurements at the field scale indicate that the soil organic carbon pool (SOCP) decreases significantly after long-term severe erosion, which in turn may release huge amounts of CO 2 to the atmosphere and eventually contribute to global warming (Lal and Pimentel, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water erosion response to rainfall and land use in different drought-level years in a loess hilly area of China

Wei

Chen

et al. 2010

CATENA

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Assessing the Response of Terrestrial Ecosystems to Potential Changes in Precipitation

Cited by 739 publications

References 48 publications

Aridity threshold in controlling ecosystem nitrogen cycling in arid and semi-arid grasslands

Aridity threshold in controlling ecosystem nitrogen cycling in arid and semi-arid grasslands

It is getting hotter in here: determining and projecting the impacts of global environmental change on drylands

Water erosion response to rainfall and land use in different drought-level years in a loess hilly area of China

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