Number of simultaneously acting global change factors affects composition, diversity and productivity of grassland plant communities

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 7811 - 11
• Main Authors: Speißer, Benedikt, Wilschut, Rutger A., van Kleunen, Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.12.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/158/853; 704/158/2453; Biodiversity; Biological effects; Biomass; Community composition; Composition; Ecosystem; Eutrophication; Factorial experiments; Grassland; Grasslands; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Plant communities; Plants; Productivity; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Seedlings; Species composition; Species diversity
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35473-1

Plant communities experience impacts of increasing numbers of global change factors (e.g., warming, eutrophication, pollution). Consequently, unpredictable global change effects could arise. However, information about multi-factor effects on plant communities is scarce. To test plant-community responses to multiple global change factors (GCFs), we subjected sown and transplanted-seedling communities to increasing numbers (0, 1, 2, 4, 6) of co-acting GCFs, and assessed effects of individual factors and increasing numbers of GCFs on community composition and productivity. GCF number reduced species diversity and evenness of both community types, whereas none of the individual factors alone affected these measures. In contrast, GCF number positively affected the productivity of the transplanted-seedling community. Our findings show that simultaneously acting GCFs can affect plant communities in ways differing from those expected from single factor effects, which may be due to biological effects, sampling effects, or both. Consequently, exploring the multifactorial nature of global change is crucial to better understand ecological impacts of global change. Multiple co-acting environmental pressures could affect ecosystems in ways not predictable based on single factors or pairwise combinations. Here, the authors show that the number of global change factors affects productivity, species composition and diversity of grassland plant communities.