Interactive Effects of Warming and Increased Precipitation on Community Structure and Composition in an Annual Forb Dominated Desert Steppe

To better understand how warming, increased precipitation and their interactions influence community structure and composition, a field experiment simulating hydrothermal interactions was conducted at an annual forb dominated desert steppe in northern China over 2 years. Increased precipitation incr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS ONE
Main Authors: Hou, Yanhui, Zhou, Guangsheng, Xu, Zhenzhu, Liu, Tao, Zhang, Xinshi
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE 2013
Subjects:
Multidisciplinary Sciences
ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS PRODUCTION
SIMULATED CLIMATE-CHANGE
PLANT COMMUNITY
ECOSYSTEM CARBON
GRASSLAND ECOSYSTEMS
SPECIES-DIVERSITY
TALLGRASS PRAIRIE
TEMPERATE STEPPE
ARCTIC TUNDRA
RESPONSES
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
Arctic
Climate change
Tundra
Online Access:http://ir.ibcas.ac.cn/handle/2S10CLM1/27821
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070114
Description
Summary:To better understand how warming, increased precipitation and their interactions influence community structure and composition, a field experiment simulating hydrothermal interactions was conducted at an annual forb dominated desert steppe in northern China over 2 years. Increased precipitation increased species richness while warming significantly decreased species richness, and their effects were additive rather than interactive. Although interannual variations in weather conditions may have a major affect on plant community composition on short term experiments, warming and precipitation treatments affected individual species and functional group composition. Warming caused C-4 grasses such as Cleistogenes squarrosa to increase while increased precipitation caused the proportions of non-perennial C-3 plants like Artemisia capillaris to decrease and perennial C-4 plants to increase.

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