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

• Published in: Ecology and evolution Vol. 9; no. 13; pp. 7628 - 7638
• Main Authors: Su, Fanglong, Wei, Yanan, Wang, Fuwei, Guo, Jiuxin, Zhang, Juanjuan, Wang, Yi, Guo, Hui, Hu, Shuijin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.07.2019; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: aboveground net primary productivity; Climate change; Competition; Drought; Environmental changes; Environmental stress; Flowers & plants; Global warming; Grasses; Grasslands; Net Primary Productivity; Original Research; Plant communities; plant community; Plant growth; plant interspecific relationship; Plant populations; Plant removal; Plant species; Plateaus; Precipitation; Productivity; Soil moisture; Stresses; Terrestrial ecosystems; Terrestrial environments; tolerance to drought; Water resources; China; Loess Plateau; tolerance to drought; plant community; plant interspecific relationship; aboveground net primary productivity; soil moisture
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.5312

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. A field manipulation experiment in a semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau was conducted to examine the effects of climate warming, precipitation change and N inputs on plant community and plant–microbial interactions. Plant community productivity remained unchanged: Biomass of dominant species increased but that of nondominant species decreased.