Abstract

The response of plant diversity to increased snowfall, i.e., precipitation that falls in a solid state rather than a liquid state, is unclear. We investigated the potential effects of 12 year snowfall augmentation on species richness using coordinated distributed experiments, including ten sites across a rainfall gradient of 211–354 mm and spanning 440 km in length in the temperate steppe. Snowfall augmentation decreased species richness rather than enhancing it. Abiotic factor driven by soil pH was the dominant determinant affecting the variation in species richness under changing precipitation regimes, overriding biotic factor. The strongest reduction in species richness induced by snowfall augmentation occurred in the low-rainfall sites. Our study provides insights into the relationship between precipitation and biodiversity in arid and semiarid regions.

Details

Title
Rainfall-dependent influence of snowfall on species loss
Author
Chi, Yonggang 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zhou, Lei 2 ; Li, Shaopeng 3 ; Zheng, Shuxia 4 ; Yang, Qingpeng 5 ; Yang, Xian 3 ; Xu, Ming 6 

1  College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, People’s Republic of China; State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, People’s Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People’s Republic of China 
2  College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, People’s Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People’s Republic of China 
3  School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America 
4  State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, People’s Republic of China 
5  Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People’s Republic of China 
6  Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, United States of America 
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Sep 2018
Publisher
IOP Publishing
e-ISSN
17489326
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad914
ProQuest document ID
2549055311
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.