Resistance and resilience of a grassland ecosystem to climate extremes

Climate change forecasts of more frequent climate extremes suggest that such events will become increasingly important drivers of future ecosystem dynamics and function. Because the rarity and unpredictability of naturally occurring climate extremes limits assessment of their ecological impacts, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology (Durham) Vol. 95; no. 9; pp. 2646 - 2656
Main Authors: Hoover, David L, Knapp, Alan K, Smith, Melinda D
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Brooklyn Ecological Society of America 01.09.2014
Subjects:
aboveground productivity
C3 plants
C4 plants
climate
Climate change
climate extremes
Climate models
Community composition
community reordering
community structure
demographic compensation
dominant species
Drought
Ecological function
Ecosystem dynamics
Ecosystem recovery
Ecosystems
Environmental impact
Extreme drought
forbs
functional groups
Grasses
Grasslands
Growing seasons
heat
heat tolerance
Heat waves
Midwestern United States
Plant communities
Plant ecology
Plants
Precipitation
prediction
primary productivity
Species
Summer
Terrestrial ecosystems
Midwestern United States
ISSN:0012-9658, 1939-9170
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Climate change forecasts of more frequent climate extremes suggest that such events will become increasingly important drivers of future ecosystem dynamics and function. Because the rarity and unpredictability of naturally occurring climate extremes limits assessment of their ecological impacts, we experimentally imposed extreme drought and a mid-summer heat wave over two years in a central U.S. grassland. While the ecosystem was resistant to heat waves, it was not resistant to extreme drought, which reduced aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) below the lowest level measured in this grassland in almost 30 years. This extreme reduction in ecosystem function was a consequence of reduced productivity of both C 4 grasses and C 3 forbs. However, the dominant forb was negatively impacted by the drought more than the dominant grass, and this led to a reordering of species abundances within the plant community. Although this change in community composition persisted post-drought, ANPP recovered completely the year after drought due to rapid demographic responses by the dominant grass, compensating for loss of the dominant forb. Overall, these results show that an extreme reduction in ecosystem function attributable to climate extremes (e.g., low resistance) does not preclude rapid ecosystem recovery. Given that dominance by a few species is characteristic of most ecosystems, knowledge of the traits of these species and their responses to climate extremes will be key for predicting future ecosystem dynamics and function.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/13-2186.1
Corresponding Editor: P. B. Adler.
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ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
DOI:10.1890/13-2186.1