Climate Warming Consistently Reduces Grassland Ecosystem Productivity

• Published in: Earth's future Vol. 9; no. 6
• Main Authors: Wu, Gao‐Lin, Cheng, Zhen, Alatalo, Juha Mikael, Zhao, Jingxue, Liu, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bognor Regis John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.06.2021; Wiley
• Subjects: Air temperature; Alpine climates; ANPP; Biomass; Climate change; Ecosystems; Experiments; Future climates; Global warming; grassland ecosystem; Grasslands; Growing season; Herbivores; Moisture effects; Moisture index; Net Primary Productivity; Precipitation; Productivity; Radiation; Soil temperature; Solar radiation; Sunshine duration; Temperature variations; Terrestrial ecosystems; Terrestrial environments; China
• ISSN: 2328-4277; 2328-4277
• DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001837

Future climate may profoundly impact the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, we do not know well how the functioning of different types of grassland ecosystems is associated with variation in temperature and precipitation. Here, we used long‐term field measurements to examine how climatic changes between the 1980s and the 2010s (i.e., growing season temperature, precipitation, habitat moisture index, solar radiation, and sunshine duration) have affected aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) for all major grassland types in northern China. We found that ANPP consistently declined over the 30‐year period across all types of grassland, on average by about 6.1%. Warming, associated with increased solar radiation and, hence, soil temperature, was the primary factor driving the decrease of ANPP. We further show that ANPP was more sensitive to climate change in alpine and lowland grasslands than in temperate grasslands. Together, our findings indicate that climate warming consistently reduces plant productivity of different types of grassland ecosystems, and emphasize the importance of soil temperature in driving the decline in grassland productivity under climate change. Plain Language Summary Future climate may profoundly impact the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, we do not know well how the functioning of different types of grassland ecosystems is associated with variation in temperature and precipitation. Here, we used long‐term field measurements to examine how climatic changes between the 1980s and the 2010s (i.e., growing season temperature, precipitation, habitat moisture index, solar radiation, and sunshine duration) have affected aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) for all major grassland types in northern China. We found that ANPP consistently declined over the 30‐year period across all types of grassland, on average by about 6.1%. Warming, associated with increased solar radiation and, hence, soil temperature, was the primary factor driving the decrease of ANPP. We further show that ANPP was more sensitive to climate change in alpine and lowland grasslands than in temperate grasslands. Together, our findings indicate that climate warming consistently reduces plant productivity of different types of grassland ecosystems, and emphasize the importance of soil temperature in driving the decline in grassland productivity under climate change. Key Points There is a universal decrease in aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) over 30 years across different grassland types, and the magnitude of ANPP decline differed between types The air temperature and soil temperature rather than precipitation were the primary drivers of ANPP decline to climate change The increased air temperature and soil temperature from increased total solar radiation were the main drivers for ANPP decline