Full Text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Plant community may provide products and services to humans. However, patterns and drivers of community stability along a precipitation gradient remain unclear. A regional‐scale transect survey was conducted over a 3‐year period from 2013 to 2015, along a precipitation gradient from 275 to 555 mm and spanning 440 km in length from west to east in a temperate semiarid grassland of northern China, a central part of the Eurasian steppe. Our study provided regional‐scale evidence that the community stability increased with increasing precipitation in the semiarid ecosystem. The patterns of community stability along a precipitation gradient were ascribed to community composition and community dynamics, such as species richness and species asynchrony, rather than the abiotic effect of precipitation. Species richness regulated the temporal mean (μ) of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), while species asynchrony regulated the temporal standard deviation (σ) of ANPP, which in turn contributed to community stability. Our findings highlight the crucial role of community composition and community dynamics in regulating community stability under climate change.

Details

Title
Differential roles of species richness versus species asynchrony in regulating community stability along a precipitation gradient
Author
Chi, Yonggang 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Xu, Zhuwen 2 ; Zhou, Lei 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Yang, Qingpeng 4 ; Zheng, Shuxia 5 ; Shao‐peng Li 6 

 College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China; State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
 School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China 
 College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China; Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
 Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China 
 State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
 Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; Institute of Eco‐Chongming (IEC), Shanghai, China 
Pages
14244-14252
Section
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Dec 2019
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
e-ISSN
20457758
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2335095379
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.