Water limitation drives species loss in grassland communities after nitrogen addition and warming
Li, Hailing (Lanzhou University. College of Ecology)
Chen, Juan (Lanzhou University. College of Ecology)
Peñuelas, Josep (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Sardans i Galobart, Jordi (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Collins, Scott L. (University of New Mexico. Department of Biology)
Yu, Kailiang (Princeton University. High Meadows Environmental Institute)
Song, Chao (Lanzhou University. College of Ecology)
Ye, Jiansheng (Lanzhou University. College of Ecology)

Data:	2024
Resum:	Nutrient addition, particularly nitrogen, often increases plant aboveground biomass but causes species loss. Asymmetric competition for light is frequently assumed to explain the biomass-driven species loss. However, it remains unclear whether other factors such as water can also play a role. Increased aboveground leaf area following nitrogen addition and warming may increase transpiration and cause water limitation, leading to a decline in diversity. To test this, we conducted field measurements in a grassland community exposed to nitrogen and water addition, and warming. We found that warming and/or nitrogen addition significantly increased aboveground biomass but reduced species richness. Water addition prevented species loss in either nitrogen-enriched or warmed treatments, while it partially mitigated species loss in the treatment exposed to increases in both temperature and nitrogen. These findings thus strongly suggest that water limitation can be an important driver of species loss as biomass increases after nitrogen addition and warming when soil moisture is limiting. This result is further supported by a meta-analysis of published studies across grasslands worldwide. Our study indicates that loss of grassland species richness in the future may be greatest under a scenario of increasing temperature and nitrogen deposition, but decreasing precipitation.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Matèria:	Biodiversity ; Nitrogen deposition ; Primary productivity ; Rainfall ; Rising temperature ; Soil water content
Publicat a:	Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological sciences, Vol. 291, issue 2031 (September 2024) , art. 20240642, ISSN 1471-2954

DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0642
PMID: 39288804

Postprint 18 p, 722.3 KB

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