Biodiversity promotes resistance but dominant species shape recovery of grasslands under extreme drought

Bazzichetto, Manuele; Sperandii, Marta Gaia; Penone, Caterina; Keil, Petr; Allan, Eric; Lepš, Jan; Prati, Daniel; Fischer, Markus; Bolliger, Ralph; Gossner, Martin M.; de Bello, Francesco (2024). Biodiversity promotes resistance but dominant species shape recovery of grasslands under extreme drought. Journal of ecology, 112(5), pp. 1087-1100. Wiley 10.1111/1365-2745.14288

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How biodiversity underpins ecosystem resistance (i.e. ability to withstand environmental perturbations) and recovery (i.e. ability to return to a pre-perturbation state), and thus, stability under extreme climatic events is a timely question in ecology. To date, most studies have focussed on the role of taxonomic diversity, neglecting how community functional composition and diversity beget stability under exceptional climatic conditions. In addition, land use potentially modulates how biodiversity and ecosystem functions respond to extreme climatic conditions.
Using an 11-year time-series of plant biomass from 150 permanent grassland plots spanning a gradient of land-use intensity, we examined how taxonomic and functional components of biodiversity affected resistance and recovery of biomass under extreme drought.
The association between biodiversity, land use and biomass varied across years, especially in the driest years. Species-rich or functionally diverse communities (associated with low land-use intensity) buffered extreme droughts better, while species-poor communities or those dominated by fast-growing species (associated with high land-use intensity) had higher recovery capabilities after a moderate-to-extreme drought.
Synthesis. Our results show that plant community functional and taxonomic components determine grasslands resistance and recovery under moderate-to-extreme drought. In turn, this points to the importance of designing landscapes with both extensively and intensively managed grasslands. Functionally or taxonomically rich communities (favoured under low land-use intensity) would preserve biomass under extreme droughts, whereas species-poor or fast-growing communities (favoured by high land-use intensity) would restore biomass after extreme droughts.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Plant Ecology
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Plant Community Ecology

UniBE Contributor:

Penone, Caterina, Allan, Eric, Prati, Daniel, Fischer, Markus, Bolliger, Ralph Frédéric

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

0022-0477

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

08 Jul 2024 08:39

Last Modified:

08 Jul 2024 08:39

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/1365-2745.14288

Uncontrolled Keywords:

ecosystem function and services, extreme climatic events, land-use intensity, plant biomass,recovery, resistance, Standardised Precipitation- Evapotranspiration Index

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/198498

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/198498

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