Seasonal climate change drives the community intra-annual stability of a
temperate grassland by altering species asynchrony in Inner Mongolia,
China
Abstract
Understanding the factors that regulate the functioning of our
ecosystems in response to environmental changes can help to maintain the
stable provisioning of ecosystem services to mankind. This is especially
relevant given the increased variability of environmental conditions due
to human activities. In particular, maintaining a stable production and
plant biomass during the growing season (intra-annual stability) despite
pervasive and directional changes in temperature and precipitation
through time can help to secure food supply to wild animals, livestock,
and humans. Here, we conducted a 29-year field observational study in a
temperate grassland to explore how the intra-annual stability of primary
productivity is influenced by biotic and abiotic variables through time.
In particular, we analyzed the relationship of community biomass
intra-annual stability with plant diversity and seasonal distribution
patterns of temperature and precipitation. We found that lower
accumulated precipitation between June and September during the 29-year
investigated contributed to lower intra-annual community stability
because of a decrease in compensatory mechanisms among species (species
asynchrony). Additionally, higher precipitation in July contributed to
higher intra-annual stability because higher species richness with
higher precipitation led to higher average intra-annual stability of all
species in the community (species stability). In contrast, we found no
evidence that temperature influenced community intra-annual stability.
Our results indicates that ongoing reduced seasonal precipitation
leading to reduced intra-annual stability in the temperate grassland,
which has important theoretical significance for us to take active
measures to deal with climate change.