Sensitivity of plant species to warming and altered precipitation dominates the community productivity in a semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau

Abstract

Global warming and changes in precipitation patterns can critically influence the structure and productivity of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. We conducted two independent but complementary experiments (one with warming and precipitation manipulation (+ or – 30%) and another with selective plant removal) in a semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau, northwestern China, to assess how warming and altered precipitation affect plant community. Our results showed that warming and altered precipitation affected community aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) through impacting soil moisture. Results of the removal experiment showed competitive relationships among dominant grasses, the dominant subshrub and nondominant species, which played a more important role than soil moisture in the response of plant community to warming and altered precipitation. Precipitation addition intensified the competition but primarily benefited the dominant subshrub. Warming and precipitation reduction enhanced water stresses but increased ANPP of the dominant subshrub and grasses, indicating that plant tolerance to drought critically meditated the community responses. These findings suggest that specie competitivity for water resources as well as tolerance to environmental stresses may dominate the responses of plant communities on the Loess Plateaus to future climate change factors.

Assessing the roles of nitrogen, biomass, and niche dimensionality as drivers of species loss in grassland communities

“…The csv files and R file have been deposited in Figshare, https://figshare.com/s/d2933788bc55814b47f3 ( 64 ). Previously published data were used for this work ( 8 , 27 , 34 , 43 , 44 , 53 , 65 …”

Revealing the Fingerprint of Climate Change in Interannual NDVI Variability among Biomes in Inner Mongolia, China

“…This discrepancy could be attributed to differences in the spatial scales of ANPP measurements obtained by direct measurement versus those inferred from NDVI. For instance, species composition, frequency, and abundance of key species may be the main factor determining vegetation variations at the site level [28,29], whereas vegetation variations could be mainly related to the compositions of plant communities at a large scale [30]. It is well known that ecosystem stability progressively increases as increases in the hierarchy of organizational levels due to compensatory interactions among major components of the ecosystem [31,32].…”

Does pH matter for ecosystem multifunctionality? An empirical test in a semi‐arid grassland on the Loess Plateau

“…The initial soil pH, soil carbonate and soil organic carbon (SOC) in the topmost 15 cm of the mineral soil were 8.05 ± 0.01, 22.43 ± 0.37 g CO 3 2− kg −1 soil and 30.1 ± 0.5 g kg −1 soil (mean ± SE , n = 6), respectively, indicating that the soil had a high acid buffering capacity (Jiang et al, 2018; Nelson & Su, 2010). The plant community was dominated by two perennial grasses and a subshrub which consist of more than 70% of the total above‐ground biomass (the dry weight of above‐ground biomass was 302 g m −2 ; Su et al, 2019). The dominant species and its growing season and flowering periods were Artemisia sacrorum L. (April–November and August respectively), Stipa przewalskyi R. (April–October and May respectively) and Stipa grandis P. S. (April–October and May respectively; Table S1).…”