Rainfall Variability, Carbon Cycling, and Plant Species Diversity in a Mesic Grassland
Top Cited Papers
- 13 December 2002
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 298 (5601) , 2202-2205
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1076347
Abstract
Ecosystem responses to increased variability in rainfall, a prediction of general circulation models, were assessed in native grassland by reducing storm frequency and increasing rainfall quantity per storm during a 4-year experiment. More extreme rainfall patterns, without concurrent changes in total rainfall quantity, increased temporal variability in soil moisture and plant species diversity. However, carbon cycling processes such as soil CO 2 flux, CO 2 uptake by the dominant grasses, and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) were reduced, and ANPP was more responsive to soil moisture variability than to mean soil water content. Our results show that projected increases in rainfall variability can rapidly alter key carbon cycling processes and plant community composition, independent of changes in total precipitation.Keywords
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- Fire and Grazing Regulate Belowground Processes in Tallgrass PrairieEcology, 2001
- Acclimatization of soil respiration to warming in a tall grass prairieNature, 2001
- Variation Among Biomes in Temporal Dynamics of Aboveground Primary ProductionScience, 2001
- Climate Extremes: Observations, Modeling, and ImpactsScience, 2000
- Altering Rainfall Timing and Quantity in a Mesic Grassland Ecosystem: Design and Performance of Rainfall Manipulation SheltersEcosystems, 2000
- The Relationship Between Productivity and Species RichnessAnnual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 1999
- Determinants of Soil CO 2 Flux from a Sub-Humid Grassland: Effect of Fire and Fire HistoryEcological Applications, 1998
- Trends in high-frequency climate variability in the twentieth centuryNature, 1995
- Physiological Interactions Along Resource Gradients in a Tallgrass PrairieEcology, 1991
- Environmental Heterogeneity and Plant Species Diversity: A HypothesisThe American Naturalist, 1977