Temporal variability in production is not consistently affected by global change drivers across herbaceous-dominated ecosystems

Meghan L Avolio¹, Kevin R Wilcox², Kimberly J Komatsu³, Nathan Lemoine^{4

5}, William D Bowman⁶, Scott L Collins⁷, Alan K Knapp^{8

9}, Sally E Koerner¹⁰, Melinda D Smith^{8

9}, Sara G Baer¹¹, Katherine L Gross¹², Forest Isbell¹³, Jennie McLaren¹⁴, Peter B Reich^{15

16}, Katharine N Suding⁶, K Blake Suttle¹⁷, David Tilman¹³, Zhuwen Xu¹⁸, Qiang Yu¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA. meghan.avolio@jhu.edu.
² Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA.
³ Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD, 21037, USA.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 53233, USA.
⁵ Department of Zoology, Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, WI, 53233, USA.
⁶ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
⁷ Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA.
⁸ Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
⁹ Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, 27402, USA.
¹¹ Kansas Biological Survey and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.
¹² WK Kellogg Biological Station and Graduate Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI, 49060, USA.
¹³ Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Tx, 79968, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
¹⁶ Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia.
¹⁷ Angelo Coast Range Reserve, Branscomb, CA, 95417, USA.
¹⁸ Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China.
¹⁹ National Hulunber Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.

PMID: 33130915
DOI: 10.1007/s00442-020-04787-6

Temporal variability in production is not consistently affected by global change drivers across herbaceous-dominated ecosystems

Meghan L Avolio et al. Oecologia. 2020 Dec.

. 2020 Dec;194(4):735-744.

doi: 10.1007/s00442-020-04787-6. Epub 2020 Nov 1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA. meghan.avolio@jhu.edu.
² Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA.
³ Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD, 21037, USA.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 53233, USA.
⁵ Department of Zoology, Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, WI, 53233, USA.
⁶ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
⁷ Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA.
⁸ Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
⁹ Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, 27402, USA.
¹¹ Kansas Biological Survey and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.
¹² WK Kellogg Biological Station and Graduate Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI, 49060, USA.
¹³ Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Tx, 79968, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
¹⁶ Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia.
¹⁷ Angelo Coast Range Reserve, Branscomb, CA, 95417, USA.
¹⁸ Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China.
¹⁹ National Hulunber Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.

PMID: 33130915
DOI: 10.1007/s00442-020-04787-6

Abstract

Understanding how global change drivers (GCDs) affect aboveground net primary production (ANPP) through time is essential to predicting the reliability and maintenance of ecosystem function and services in the future. While GCDs, such as drought, warming and elevated nutrients, are known to affect mean ANPP, less is known about how they affect inter-annual variability in ANPP. We examined 27 global change experiments located in 11 different herbaceous ecosystems that varied in both abiotic and biotic conditions, to investigate changes in the mean and temporal variability of ANPP (measured as the coefficient of variation) in response to different GCD manipulations, including resource additions, warming, and irrigation. From this comprehensive data synthesis, we found that GCD treatments increased mean ANPP. However, GCD manipulations both increased and decreased temporal variability of ANPP (24% of comparisons), with no net effect overall. These inconsistent effects on temporal variation in ANPP can, in part, be attributed to site characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and temperature as well as plant community evenness. For example, decreases in temporal variability in ANPP with the GCD treatments occurred in wetter and warmer sites with lower plant community evenness. Further, the addition of several nutrients simultaneously increased the sensitivity of ANPP to interannual variation in precipitation. Based on this analysis, we expect that GCDs will likely affect the magnitude more than the reliability over time of ecosystem production in the future.

Keywords: Ecosystem function; Grasslands; Primary production; Sensitivity; Stability.

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References

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Temporal variability in production is not consistently affected by global change drivers across herbaceous-dominated ecosystems

Affiliations

Temporal variability in production is not consistently affected by global change drivers across herbaceous-dominated ecosystems

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

MeSH terms

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