Disentangling climate from soil nutrient effects on plant biomass production using a multispecies phytometer

Aridity modulates grassland biomass responses to combined drought and nutrient addition

Plant biomass tends to increase under nutrient addition and decrease under drought. Biotic and abiotic factors influence responses to both, making the combined impact of nutrient addition and drought difficult to predict. Using a globally distributed network of manipulative field experiments, we assessed grassland aboveground biomass response to both drought and increased nutrient availability at 26 sites across nine countries. Overall, drought reduced biomass by 19% and nutrient addition increased it by 24%, resulting in no net impact under combined drought and nutrient addition. Among the plant functional groups, only graminoids responded positively to nutrients during drought. However, these general responses depended on local conditions, especially aridity. Nutrient effects were stronger in arid grasslands and weaker in humid regions and nitrogen-rich soils, although nutrient addition alleviated drought effects the most in subhumid sites. Biomass responses were weaker with higher precipitation variability. Biomass increased more with increased nutrient availability and declined more with drought at high-diversity sites than at low-diversity sites. Our findings highlight the importance of local abiotic and biotic conditions in predicting grassland responses to anthropogenic nutrient and climate changes.

Long-term temporal patterns in ecosystem carbon flux components and overall balance in a heathland ecosystem

Terrestrial ecosystems have strong feedback to atmospheric CO₂ concentration and climate change. However, the long-term whole life cycle dynamics of ecosystem carbon (C) fluxes and overall balance in some ecosystem types, such as heathland ecosystems, have not been thoroughly explored. We studied the changes in ecosystem CO₂ flux components and overall C balance over a full ecosystem lifecycle in stands of Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull by using a chronosequence of 0, 12, 19 and 28 years after vegetation cutting. Overall, the ecosystem C balance was highly nonlinear over time and exhibited a sinusoidal-like curvature of C sink/source change over the three-decade timescale. After cutting, plant-related C flux components of gross photosynthesis (P_G)_, aboveground autotrophic respiration (R_aa) and belowground autotrophic respiration (R_ba) were higher at the young age (12 years) than at middle (19 years) and old (28 years) ages. The young ecosystem was a C sink (12 years: -0.374 kg C m^-2 year^-1) while it became a C source with aging (19 years: 0.218 kg C m^-2 year^-1) and when dying (28 years: 0.089 kg C m^-2 year^-1). The post-cutting C compensation point was observed after four years, while the cumulative C loss in the period after cutting had been compensated by an equal amount of C uptake after seven years. Annual ecosystem C payback from the ecosystem to the atmosphere started after 16 years. This information may be used directly for optimizing vegetation management practices for maximal ecosystem C uptake capacity. Our study highlights that whole life cycle observational data of changes in C fluxes and balance in ecosystems are important and the ecosystem model needs to take the successional stage and vegetation age into account when projecting component C fluxes, ecosystem C balance, and overall feedback to climate change.

Interspecific trait variability and local soil conditions modulate grassland model community responses to climate

Medium-to-high elevation grasslands provide critical services in agriculture and ecosystem stabilization, through high biodiversity and providing food for wildlife. However, these ecosystems face elevated risks of disruption due to predicted soil and climate changes. Separating the effects of soil and climate, however, is difficult in situ, with previous experiments focusing largely on monocultures instead of natural grassland communities. We experimentally exposed model grassland communities, comprised of three species grown on either local or reference soil, to varied climatic environments along an elevational gradient in the European Alps, measuring the effects on species and community traits. Although species-specific biomass varied across soil and climate, species' proportional contributions to community-level biomass production remained consistent. Where species experienced low survivorship, species-level biomass production was maintained through increased productivity of surviving individuals; however, maximum species-level biomass was obtained under high survivorship. Species responded directionally to climatic variation, spatially separating differentially by plant traits (including height, reproduction, biomass, survival, leaf dry weight, and leaf area) consistently across all climates. Local soil variation drove stochastic trait responses across all species, with high levels of interactions occurring between site and species. This soil variability obscured climate-driven responses: we recorded no directional trait responses for soil-corrected traits like observed for climate-corrected traits. Our species-based approach contributes to our understanding of grassland community stabilization and suggests that these communities show some stability under climatic variation.