Grassland species respond differently to altered precipitation amount and pattern

Zhang, Bin; Zhu, Jun; Pan, Qingmin; Liu, Yanshu; Chen, Shiping; Chen, Dima; Yan, Yue; Dou, Shande; Han, Xingguo

doi:10.1016/j.envexpbot.2017.02.006

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In the normal range, the stable f BNPP was mainly because of a lack of response in both ANPP and BNPP to changing precipitation when the extreme drought stress was released. Similar findings have been reported by other field manipulation experiments in their nominal conditions (Xu et al 2013, Wilcox et al 2015, Ren et al 2017) and a pot experiment for common species in this study area (Zhang et al 2017b). In the wet range, f BNPP was enhanced by increased precipitation.…”

Section: Nonlinear Response Of Npp and Its Allocation To Changing Presupporting

confidence: 91%

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Plants alter their vertical root distribution rather than biomass allocation in response to changing precipitation

Zhang

Cadotte

Chen

et al. 2019

Ecology

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Elucidating the variation of allocation pattern of ecosystem net primary productivity (NPP) and its underlying mechanisms is critically important for understanding the changes of aboveground and belowground ecosystem functions. Under optimal partitioning theory, plants should allocate more NPP to the organ that acquires the most limiting resource, and this expectation has been widely used to explain and predict NPP allocation under changing precipitation. However, confirmatory evidence for this theory has mostly come from observed spatial variation in the relationship between precipitation and NPP allocation across ecosystems, rather than directly from the influences of changing precipitation on NPP allocation within systems. We performed a 6‐yr five‐level precipitation manipulation experiment in a semiarid steppe to test whether changes in NPP allocation can be explained by the optimal partitioning theory, and how water requirement of plant community is maintained if NPP allocation is unaltered. The 30 precipitation levels (5 levels × 6 yr) were divided into dry, nominal, and wet precipitation ranges, relative to historical precipitation variation over the past six decades. We found that NPP in both aboveground (ANPP) and belowground (BNPP) increased nonlinearly as precipitation increased, while the allocation of NPP to BNPP (fBNPP) showed a concave quadratic relationship with precipitation. The declined fBNPP as precipitation increased in the dry range supported the optimal partitioning theory. However, in the nominal range, NPP allocation was not influenced by the changed precipitation; instead, BNPP was distributed more in the surface soil horizon (0–10 cm) as precipitation increased, and conversely more in the deeper soil layers (10–30 cm) as precipitation decreased. This response in root foraging appears to be a strategy to satisfy plant water requirements and partially explains the stable NPP allocation patterns. Overall, our results suggest that plants can adjust their vertical BNPP distribution in response to drought stress, and that only under extreme drought does the optimal partitioning theory strictly apply, highlighting the context dependency of the adaption and growth of plants under changing precipitation.

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Section: Nonlinear Response Of Npp and Its Allocation To Changing Presupporting

confidence: 91%

“…) and a pot experiment for common species in this study area (Zhang et al. ). In the wet range, f BNPP was enhanced by increased precipitation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plants alter their vertical root distribution rather than biomass allocation in response to changing precipitation

Zhang

Cadotte

Chen

et al. 2019

Ecology

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“…The change in L. chinensis yield is closely related to local ecosystem health and livestock production [ 26 , 27 ]. As a typical semi-arid grassland, L. chinensis grassland productivity is regulated by precipitation patterns [ 4 , 26 , 28 ]. Previous research has revealed that the possible reasons for the variations in L. chinensis grassland productivity caused by the amount of rainfall are shifts in the size of individual plants size or density of L. chinensis [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moderately prolonged dry intervals between precipitation events promote production in Leymus chinensis in a semi-arid grassland of Northeast China

Zhang

Shen

et al. 2021

BMC Plant Biol

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Background Climate change is predicted to lead to changes in the amount and distribution of precipitation during the growing seasonal. This “repackaging” of rainfall could be particularly important for grassland productivity. Here, we designed a two-factor full factorial experiment (three levels of precipitation amount and six levels of dry intervals) to investigate the effect of precipitation patterns on biomass production in Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel. (a dominant species in the Eastern Eurasian Steppe). Results Our results showed that increased amounts of rainfall with prolonged dry intervals promoted biomass production in L. chinensis by increasing soil moisture, except for the longest dry interval (21 days). However, prolonged dry intervals with increased amount of precipitation per event decreased the available soil nitrogen content, especially the soil NO3−-N content. For small with more frequent rainfall events pattern, L. chinensis biomass decreased due to smaller plant size (plant height) and fewer ramets. Under large quantities of rain falling during a few events, the reduction in biomass was not only affected by decreasing plant individual size and lower ramet number but also by withering of aboveground parts, which resulted from both lower soil water content and lower NO3−-N content. Conclusion Our study suggests that prolonged dry intervals between rainfall combined with large precipitation events will dramatically change grassland productivity in the future. For certain combinations of prolonged dry intervals and increased amounts of intervening rainfall, semi-arid grassland productivity may improve. However, this rainfall pattern may accelerate the loss of available soil nitrogen. Under extremely prolonged dry intervals, the periods between precipitation events exceeded the soil moisture recharge interval, the available soil moisture became fully depleted, and plant growth ceased. This implies that changes in the seasonal distribution of rainfall due to climate change could have a major impact on grassland productivity.

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“…Despite the growing evidence on rapid adaptive evolution as a response to environmental changes in the plant population, the consequences of such rapid evolution on plant diversity and community composition remain to be explored (Lavergne et al., 2010). The competitive relationship of dominant species is important for understanding community composition and biodiversity in ecosystems (Fay et al., 2003; Zhang et al., 2017). Thus, Stipa krylovii and Artemisia frigida , two dominant species that coexist in the study ecosystem (Liu et al., 2016), were selected in our study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenerational effect alters the interspecific competition between two dominant species in a temperate steppe

Yang

Hou

Yang

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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One of the key aims of global change studies is to predict more accurately how plant community composition responds to future environmental changes. Although interspecific relationship is one of the most important forces structuring plant communities, it remains a challenge to integrate long‐term consequences at the plant community level. As an increasing number of studies have shown that maternal environment affects offspring phenotypic plasticity as a response to global environment change through transgenerational effects, we speculated that the transgenerational effect would influence offspring competitive relationships. We conducted a 10‐year field experiment and a greenhouse experiment in a temperate grassland in an Inner Mongolian grassland to examine the effects of maternal and immediate nitrogen addition (N) and increased precipitation (Pr) on offspring growth and the interspecific relationship between the two dominant species, Stipa krylovii and Artemisia frigida. According to our results, Stipa kryloii suppressed A. frigida growth and population development when they grew in mixture, although immediate N and Pr stimulated S. kryloii and A. frigida growth simultaneously. Maternal N and Pr declined S. krylovii dominance and decreased A. frigida competitive suppression to some extent. The transgenerational effect should further facilitate the coexistence of the two species under scenarios of increased nitrogen input and precipitation. If we predicted these species' interspecific relationships based only on immediate environmental effects, we would overestimate S. krylovii's competitive advantage and population development, and underestimate competitive outcome and population development of A. frigida. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that the transgenerational effect of maternal environment on offspring interspecific competition must be considered when evaluating population dynamics and community composition under the global change scenario.

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Grassland species respond differently to altered precipitation amount and pattern

Cited by 25 publications

References 35 publications

Plants alter their vertical root distribution rather than biomass allocation in response to changing precipitation

Plants alter their vertical root distribution rather than biomass allocation in response to changing precipitation

Moderately prolonged dry intervals between precipitation events promote production in Leymus chinensis in a semi-arid grassland of Northeast China

Transgenerational effect alters the interspecific competition between two dominant species in a temperate steppe

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