Plant litter influences the temporal stability of plant community biomass in an alpine meadow by altering the stability and asynchrony of plant functional groups

Abstract

1. The stability of a plant community is defined as its ability to resist and be resilient to changes. Plant community stability can be driven by a range of external perturbations as well as by plant community traits. Plant litter traits (species or mass) are widely recognized drivers for plant community composition and diversity changes in grasslands. Yet, the effects of litter traits on the temporal stability of plant communities in natural grasslands are largely unknown.2. In this study, a field experiment was conducted at an alpine meadow on the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau to quantify the effects of litter from Elymus nutans, Kobresia setchwanensis and Ligularia virgaurea on the temporal stability of plant community biomass at five different mass levels (0, 100, 200, 400 and 600 g/m 2 ).The experiment was conducted over the period from the pre-growth to peakgrowth stage between 2017 and 2019, during which temporal stability of plant community biomass was assessed in relation to plant community characteristics.3. The effects of litter on temporal stability of plant community biomass were mainly driven by the litter mass rather than the litter species. A hump-shaped relationship between litter mass and temporal stability of plant community biomass was found, with the highest stability under intermediate litter mass treatment (200 g/m 2 ).A structural equation model identified that this response was driven by the indirect effects of litter mass on the temporal stability of the biomass of the dominant (forbs) and subdominant (grasses) functional groups in the community and the asynchrony of plant functional groups.4. The results of this study demonstrate that plant litter traits are important drivers for maintaining plant community stability in natural grasslands, highlighting the importance of grassland management decisions (e.g. grazing intensity) relating to the quantity and quality of litter accumulation.

Litter-Induced Reduction in Ecosystem Multifunctionality Is Mediated by Plant Diversity and Cover in an Alpine Meadow

“…Litter mass rather than litter species determined ecosystem multifunctionality under litter manipulation ( Figure 1 ). These findings show that, in alpine grasslands, plant litter has a significant effect on most above-ground individual functions ( Figure 2 ; Ma et al, 2021 ) and may be the primary driver of ecosystem multifunctionality.…”

Below‐ground net primary productivity stability in response to a nitrogen addition gradient in an alpine meadow

“…Understanding ecosystem stability has emerged as an important issue in ecology (Brown et al, 2016; Ma et al, 2021), as stable ecosystems are crucial for providing sustainable services and functions to humanity (Isbell et al, 2015; Ma et al, 2017). Mounting evidence demonstrates that increasing anthropogenic reactive nitrogen (N), due to accelerating industrialization and utilization of synthetic N fertilizer (Galloway et al, 2008), is a serious threat to ecosystem stability (Ma, Zhang, et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2016).…”

“…), being the largest plateau in the world and known as the Earth's ‘Third Pole’, has been experiencing an obvious increase in N deposition from 0.87 to 1.38 g N m −2 year −1 in 13 years (Chen et al, 2020; Lü & Tian, 2007). The unique geographical location and climatic characteristics of the QTP have greatly aroused interests in the ANPP stability (Ma et al, 2021; Quan et al, 2021), while we are still lacking corresponding knowledge of BNPP stability in response to N enrichment. The specific questions that this study aimed to address are: (1) How does BNPP stability respond to different N addition rates?…”

Intra‐annual growing season climate variability drives the community intra‐annual stability of a temperate grassland by altering intra‐annual species asynchrony and richness in Inner Mongolia, China

“…Thus, a reduction in plant diversity in response to climate change may result in a reduction in stability (Campbell et al, 2011 ; Hautier et al, 2014 ; Zhang et al, 2018 ). Second, community stability may be driven primarily by the stability of dominant species and/or functional groups, especially when dominant species and/or functional groups account for a considerable proportion of community biomass (Hillebrand et al, 2008 ; Huang et al, 2020 ; Ma et al, 2022 ). Third, asynchronous dynamics among species may contribute largely to stabilizing community properties against environmental changes (Loreau & de Mazancourt, 2013 ; Valencia et al, 2020 ).…”