Dual mechanisms regulate ecosystem stability under decade-long warming and hay harvest

Zheng Shi (), Xia Xu, Lara Souza, Kevin Wilcox, Lifen Jiang, Junyi Liang, Jianyang Xia, Pablo García-Palacios and Yiqi Luo ()
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Zheng Shi: University of Oklahoma
Xia Xu: Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and The Environment, Nanjing Forestry University
Lara Souza: University of Oklahoma
Kevin Wilcox: University of Oklahoma
Lifen Jiang: University of Oklahoma
Junyi Liang: University of Oklahoma
Jianyang Xia: Tiantong National Forest Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University
Pablo García-Palacios: Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C/Tulipán s/n
Yiqi Luo: University of Oklahoma

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Past global change studies have identified changes in species diversity as a major mechanism regulating temporal stability of production, measured as the ratio of the mean to the standard deviation of community biomass. However, the dominant plant functional group can also strongly determine the temporal stability. Here, in a grassland ecosystem subject to 15 years of experimental warming and hay harvest, we reveal that warming increases while hay harvest decreases temporal stability. This corresponds with the biomass of the dominant C4 functional group being higher under warming and lower under hay harvest. As a secondary mechanism, biodiversity also explains part of the variation in temporal stability of production. Structural equation modelling further shows that warming and hay harvest regulate temporal stability through influencing both temporal mean and variation of production. Our findings demonstrate the joint roles that dominant plant functional group and biodiversity play in regulating the temporal stability of an ecosystem under global change.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11973

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