Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment

Kreyling, Juergen; Dengler, Jürgen; Walter, Julia; Velev, Nikolay; Ugurlu, Emin; Sopotlieva, Desislava; Ransijn, Johannes; Picon-Cochard, Catherine; Nijs, Ivan; Hernandez, Pauline; Güler, Behlül; von Gillhaussen, Philipp; De Boeck, Hans J.; Bloor, Juliette M.G.; Berwaers, Sigi; Beierkuhnlein, Carl; Arfin Khan, Mohammed A.S.; Apostolova, Iva; Altan, Yasin; Zeiter, Michaela; ... (2017). Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment Ecology Letters, 20(11), pp. 1405-1413. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/ele.12848

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Biodiversity can buffer ecosystem functioning against extreme climatic events, but few experiments have explicitly tested this. Here, we present the first multisite biodiversity × drought manipulation experiment to examine drought resistance and recovery at five temperate and Mediterranean grassland sites. Aboveground biomass production declined by 30% due to experimental drought (standardised local extremity by rainfall exclusion for 72–98 consecutive days). Species richness did not affect resistance but promoted recovery. Recovery was only positively affected by species richness in low‐productive communities, with most diverse communities even showing overcompensation. This positive diversity effect could be linked to asynchrony of species responses. Our results suggest that a more context‐dependent view considering the nature of the climatic disturbance as well as the productivity of the studied system will help identify under which circumstances biodiversity promotes drought resistance or recovery. Stability of biomass production can generally be expected to decrease with biodiversity loss and climate change.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Resource-efficient agricultural production systems School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Agriculture
Name:	Kreyling, Juergen; Dengler, Jürgen; Walter, Julia; Velev, Nikolay; Ugurlu, Emin; Sopotlieva, Desislava; Ransijn, Johannes; Picon-Cochard, Catherine; Nijs, Ivan; Hernandez, Pauline; Güler, Behlül; von Gillhaussen, Philipp; De Boeck, Hans J.; Bloor, Juliette M.G.; Berwaers, Sigi; Beierkuhnlein, Carl; Arfin Khan, Mohammed A.S.; Apostolova, Iva; Altan, Yasin; Zeiter, Michaela; Wellstein, Camilla; Sternberg, Marcelo; Stampfli, Andreas; Campetella, Giandiego; Bartha, Sándor; Bahn, Michael; Jentsch, Anke and Penuelas, Josep
Subjects:	Q Science > QK Botany S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
ISSN:	1461-023X
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
Language:	English
Submitter:	Simon Lutz
Date Deposited:	17 Dec 2019 11:55
Last Modified:	12 Feb 2024 16:31
Publisher DOI:	10.1111/ele.12848
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.8457
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/8457