TY - JOUR T1 - Linking changes in species composition and biomass in a globally distributed grassland experiment JF - Ecology Letters Y1 - 2022 A1 - Ladouceur, Emma A1 - Blowes, Shane A. A1 - Chase, Jonathan M. A1 - Clark, Adam T. A1 - Garbowski, Magda A1 - Alberti, Juan A1 - Arnillas, Carlos Alberto A1 - Bakker, Jonathan D. A1 - Barrio, Isabel C. A1 - Bharath, Siddharth A1 - Borer, Elizabeth T. A1 - Brudvig, Lars A. A1 - Cadotte, Marc W. A1 - Chen, Qingqing A1 - Collins, Scott L. A1 - Dickman, Christopher R. A1 - Donohue, Ian A1 - Du, Guozhen A1 - Ebeling, Anne A1 - Eisenhauer, Nico A1 - Fay, Philip A. A1 - Hagenah, Nicole A1 - Hautier, Yann A1 - Jentsch, Anke A1 - Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg S. A1 - Kimberly J. Komatsu A1 - MacDougall, Andrew A1 - Martina, Jason P. A1 - Moore, Joslin L. A1 - Morgan, John W. A1 - Peri, Pablo L. A1 - Power, A. A1 - Ren, Zhengwei A1 - Risch, Anita C. A1 - Roscher, Christiane A1 - Schuchardt, A. A1 - Seabloom, Eric W. A1 - Stevens, Carly J. A1 - Veen, G.F. (Ciska) A1 - Virtanen, Risto A1 - Wardle, Glenda M. A1 - Wilfahrt, Peter A. A1 - Harpole, W. Stanley VL - 25 UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.14126 IS - 12 JO - Ecology Letters ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Nutrient identity modifies the destabilising effects of eutrophication in grasslands JF - Ecology Letters Y1 - 2022 A1 - Carroll, Oliver A1 - Batzer, Evan A1 - Bharath, Siddharth A1 - Borer, Elizabeth T. A1 - Campana, ía A1 - Esch, Ellen A1 - Hautier, Yann A1 - Ohlert, Timothy A1 - Seabloom, Eric W. A1 - Adler, Peter B. A1 - Bakker, Jonathan D. A1 - Biederman, Lori A1 - Bugalho, Miguel N. A1 - Caldeira, Maria A1 - Chen, Qingqing A1 - Davies, Kendi F. A1 - Fay, Philip A. A1 - Knops, Johannes M. H. A1 - Kimberly J. Komatsu A1 - Martina, Jason P. A1 - McCann, Kevin S. A1 - Moore, Joslin L. A1 - Morgan, John W. A1 - Muraina, Taofeek O. A1 - Osborne, Brooke A1 - Risch, Anita C. A1 - Stevens, Carly A1 - Wilfahrt, Peter A. A1 - Yahdjian, Laura A1 - MacDougall, Andrew S. ED - Peñuelas, Josep AB -
Nutrient enrichment can simultaneously increase and destabilise plant biomass production, with co-limitation by multiple nutrients potentially intensifying these effects. Here, we test how factorial additions of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium with essential nutrients (K+) affect the stability (mean/standard deviation) of aboveground biomass in 34 grasslands over 7 years. Destabilisation with fertilisation was prevalent but was driven by single nutrients, not synergistic nutrient interactions. On average, N-based treatments increased mean biomass production by 21–51% but increased its standard deviation by 40–68% and so consistently reduced stability. Adding P increased interannual variability and reduced stability without altering mean biomass, while K+ had no general effects. Declines in stability were largest in the most nutrient-limited grasslands, or where nutrients reduced species richness or intensified species synchrony. We show that nutrients can differentially impact the stability of biomass production, with N and P in particular disproportionately increasing its interannual variability.
VL - 259 UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.13946 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Nutrient addition increases grassland sensitivity to droughts JF - Ecology Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bharath, Siddharth A1 - E.T. Borer A1 - L.A. Biederman A1 - D.M. Blumenthal A1 - Fay, Philip A. A1 - Gherardi, Laureano A. A1 - Knops, Johannes M. H. A1 - Leakey, Andrew D. B. A1 - Yahdjian, Laura A1 - Seabloom, Eric W. AB -Grasslands worldwide are expected to experience an increase in extreme events such as drought, along with simultaneous increases in mineral nutrient inputs as a result of human industrial activities. These changes are likely to interact because elevated nutrient inputs may alter plant diversity and increase the sensitivity to droughts. Dividing a system’s sensitivity to drought into resistance to change during the drought and rate of recovery after the drought generates insights into different dimensions of the system’s resilience in the face of drought. Here, we examine the effects of experimental nutrient fertilization and the resulting diversity loss on the resistance to and recovery from severe regional droughts. We do this at 13 North American sites spanning gradients of aridity, five annual grasslands in California, and eight perennial grasslands in the Great Plains. We measured rate of resistance as the change in annual aboveground biomass (ANPP) per unit change in growing season precipitation as conditions declined from normal to drought. We measured recovery as the change in ANPP during the postdrought period and the return to normal precipitation. Resistance and recovery did not vary across the 400‐mm range of mean growing season precipitation spanned by our sites in the Great Plains. However, chronic nutrient fertilization in the Great Plains reduced drought resistance and increased drought recovery. In the California annual grasslands, arid sites had a greater recovery postdrought than mesic sites, and nutrient addition had no consistent effects on resistance or recovery. Across all study sites, we found that predrought species richness in natural grasslands was not consistently associated with rates of resistance to or recovery from the drought, in contrast to earlier findings from experimentally assembled grassland communities. Taken together, these results suggest that human‐induced eutrophication may destabilize grassland primary production, but the effects of this may vary across regions and flora, especially between perennial and annual‐dominated grasslands.
VL - 101 UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ecy.2981 IS - 5 ER -