Productivity of Leymus chinensis grassland is co-limited by water and nitrogen and resilient to climate change

Shi, Yujie; Ao, Yunna; Sun, Boxing; Knops, Johannes M. H.; Zhang, Jinwei; Guo, Zhihan; De, Xianming; Han, Jikhyon; Yang, Yuheng; Jiang, Xiaoyu; Mu, Chunsheng; Wang, Junfeng

doi:10.1007/s11104-022-05344-1

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…In our study, the −60 d treatment reduced AGB, while the −60% treatment did not have a significant effect on AGB, which was inconsistent with the previous research results on the reduction of biomass during the growing season [56]. The main reason for this is that the rainfall distribution in 2018 was relatively uniform, and the residual rainfall after −60% of the treatment can also meet the water required for plant growth [41], while −60 d affects the water required by plants in the early stage of growth, and ultimately affects plant growth and reduces biomass.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Zhang

Zuo

2023

IJERPH

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Grassland use patterns, water and nutrients are the main determinants of ecosystem structure and function in semiarid grasslands. However, few studies have reported how the interactive effects of rainfall changes and nitrogen deposition influence the recovery of semiarid grasslands degraded by grazing. In this study, a simulated grazing, increasing and decreasing rainfall, nitrogen deposition test platform was constructed, and the regulation mechanism of vegetation characteristics and productivity were studied. We found that grazing decreased plant community height (CWMheight) and litter and increased plant density. Increasing rainfall by 60% from May to August (+60%) increased CWMheight; decreasing rainfall by 60% from May to August (–60%) and by 100% from May to June (−60 d) decreased CWMheight and coverage; −60 d, +60% and increasing rainfall by 100% from May to June (+60 d) increased plant density; −60% increased the Simpson dominance index (D index) but decreased the Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H index); −60 d decreased the aboveground biomass (ABG), and −60% increased the underground biomass (BGB) in the 10–60 cm layer. Nitrogen addition decreased species richness and the D index and increased the H index and AGB. Rainfall and soil nitrogen directly affect AGB; grazing and rainfall can also indirectly affect AGB by inducing changes in CWMheight; grazing indirectly affects BGB by affecting plant density and soil nitrogen. The results of this study showed that in the semiarid grassland of Inner Mongolia, grazing in the nongrowing season and grazing prohibition in the growing season can promote grassland recovery, continuous drought in the early growing season will have dramatic impacts on productivity, nitrogen addition has a certain impact on the species composition of vegetation, and the impact on productivity will not appear in the short term.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Zhang

Zuo

2023

IJERPH

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“…This is in line with irrigation and fertilisation experiments conducted in the cold steppe (Li et al, 2011) and other sites with similar conditions (e.g. Shi et al, 2022). Contrary to the results of Li et al (2011), who reported a lower share of annuals and bi-annuals -that are more likely C than S-strategists -in the rainfed treatments, the S-PFT was dominant in the irrigated scenarios.…”

Section: Cold Steppesupporting

confidence: 88%

Connecting CSR theory and LPJmL 5.3 to assess the role of environmental conditions, management and functional diversity for grassland ecosystem functions

Wirth

Poyda

Taube

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. Forage supply and soil organic carbon storage are two important ecosystem functions of permanent grasslands, which are determined by climatic conditions, management and functional diversity. However, functional diversity is not independent of climate and management, and it is important to understand the role of functional diversity and these dependencies for ecosystem functions of permanent grasslands. Especially since functional diversity may play a key role in mediating impacts of changing conditions. Large-scale ecosystem models are used to assess ecosystem functions within a consistent framework for multiple climate and management scenarios. However, large-scale models of permanent grasslands rarely consider functional diversity. We implemented a representation of functional diversity based on the CSR theory and the global spectrum of plant form and function into the LPJmL dynamic global vegetation model forming LPJmL-CSR. Using a Bayesian calibration method, we parameterised new plant functional types and used these to assess forage supply, soil organic carbon storage and community composition of three permanent grassland sites. These are a temperate grassland, a hot and a cold steppe for which we simulated several management scenarios with different defoliation intensities and resource limitations. LPJmL-CSR captured the grassland dynamics well under observed conditions and showed improved results for forage supply and/or SOC compared to LPJmL 5.3 at three grassland sites. Furthermore, LPJmL-CSR was able to reproduce the trade-offs associated with the global spectrum of plant form and function and similar strategies emerged independent of the site specific conditions (e.g. the C- and R-PFTs were more resource exploitative than S-PFTs). Under different resource limitations, we observed a shift of the community composition. At the hot steppe for example, irrigation led to a more balanced community composition with similar C-, S- and R-PFT shares of above-ground biomass. Our results show, that LPJmL-CSR allows for explicit analysis of the adaptation of grassland vegetation to changing conditions while explicitly considering functional diversity. The implemented mechanisms and trade-offs are universally applicable paving the way for large-scale application. Applying LPJmL-CSR for different climate change and functional diversity scenarios may generate a range of future grassland productivity.

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“…Although theory predicts substantial differences between arid and mesic grassland sensitivities to intra‐annual precipitation variability increases (IPVI) (Knapp et al, 2008), individual field experiments have found inconsistent IPVI effects on ecosystem function even within the same climate region (Griffin‐Nolan et al, 2021; Ritter et al, 2020). For example, IPVI showed positive (Heisler‐White et al, 2009; Shi et al, 2022) and negative effects (Liu et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2013) on grassland productivity in arid grasslands, while negative (Knapp et al, 2002) and neutral effects (Koerner et al, 2014) were both found in mesic grasslands. Theoretically, increased precipitation variability is expected to alter grassland community structure and ecosystem function via changing soil water availability (Knapp et al, 2008; Quan et al, 2019; Weng & Luo, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accounting for 40.5% of the Earth's land surface (White et al, 2000), grasslands provide multiple ecosystem services and are highly vulnerable to climate change (Bai & Cotrufo, 2022; Lugato et al, 2021). Previous studies have demonstrated that changes in precipitation amounts exert large impacts on grassland biodiversity and ecosystem function (Shi et al, 2022; Wilcox et al, 2017). Furthermore, recent global integrated analyses and process‐based models suggest that grassland ecosystem function is highly sensitive to inter‐annual precipitation variability (Du et al, 2023; Gherardi & Sala, 2018; Hou et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Divergent responses of grassland productivity and plant diversity to intra‐annual precipitation variability across climate regions: A global synthesis

Zhang

2023

Journal of Ecology

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Global warming intensifies the hydrological cycle and may result in changes in the frequency and intensity of precipitation events. However, a knowledge gap still exists about the general influences of intra‐annual precipitation variability on grassland plant diversity and ecosystem function at the global scale. Here, we synthesized field manipulative experiments from 66 publications to quantify the effects of intra‐annual precipitation variability increases (IPVI) on community biomass and plant diversity in grasslands worldwide. At the global scale, we found that IPVI generally increased grassland community above‐ground biomass (AGB) by 6.90%, and decreased grass biomass and soil ammonium content by 10.38% and 25.35% respectively. IPVI increased and decreased total AGB in arid and humid regions, respectively, and IPVI enhanced grassland below‐ground biomass and plant species richness in arid regions, but showed no effect in humid regions. Furthermore, moderate IPVI stimulated plant species richness and community biomass in arid grasslands, while extreme IPVI impaired them in mesic grasslands. Changes in total AGB under IPVI were related to changes in the biomass of plant functional groups, species richness and soil moisture. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that climate conditions (mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation) and background soil properties (soil sand content and soil organic carbon content) jointly regulated grassland total AGB responses to IPVI across climate regions. Synthesis. Overall, our study shows divergent responses of grassland productivity and diversity to IPVI in arid and humid regions. Accounting for climate, edaphic properties and precipitation variability can help improve our ability to predict the responses of grassland ecosystems to future changes in precipitation at global scales.

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Productivity of Leymus chinensis grassland is co-limited by water and nitrogen and resilient to climate change

Cited by 14 publications

References 53 publications

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Effects of Grazing, Extreme Drought, Extreme Rainfall and Nitrogen Addition on Vegetation Characteristics and Productivity of Semiarid Grassland

Connecting CSR theory and LPJmL 5.3 to assess the role of environmental conditions, management and functional diversity for grassland ecosystem functions

Divergent responses of grassland productivity and plant diversity to intra‐annual precipitation variability across climate regions: A global synthesis

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