Knowledge Resource Center for Ecological Environment in Arid Area
DOI | 10.1111/1365-2664.13780 |
Rainfall pulses mediate long-term plant community compositional dynamics in a semi-arid rangeland | |
Liang, Maowei; Feng, Xiao; Gornish, Elise S. | |
通讯作者 | Liang, MW |
来源期刊 | JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
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ISSN | 0021-8901 |
EISSN | 1365-2664 |
英文摘要 | Semi-arid rangelands, comprising more than 40% of the Earth's land surface, provide critical ecosystem services. Worldwide, these ecosystems are experiencing rapid degradation due to overgrazing and precipitation changes. However, how plants respond to these interacting factors remains relatively unexplored, and precisely which and how rainfall factors determine plant community dynamics in rangelands has not been well developed. We used a long-term (1953-2018) dataset from semi-arid rangeland to investigate coupled effects of grazing intensity and rainfall intensity (the total amount of precipitation) on different groups of plant cover (herbaceous, woody and cacti plants) using linear mixed-effects models, redundancy analysis and structural equation models. We examined how rainfall intensity influenced plant cover dynamics according to pulse size (intensity over time) categories, which we analysed at three scales: yearly, within the wet season only (June-September) and within the dry season only (October-May). Plant community cover showed a humpbacked trend in the last six decades, mostly through changes in woody plants. Although both grazing intensity and rainfall presented similar humpbacked trends with plant community cover, our models demonstrated that the reduction of plant cover from the 1990s has been mainly caused by a decrease of rainfall rather than grazing intensity, particularly due to profound reductions of the intensity of relatively small rainfall pulses (e.g. 5.1-15 mm/day) during the dry season. Specifically, these small rainfall pulses can increase plant cover of all subgroups of woody and herbaceous species, thereby increasing plant community cover. Moreover, rainfall pulses during the wet season had negative effects on herbaceous species and positive effects on woody plants. These results suggest a phenological niche partitioning between woody plants and herbaceous in subtropical rangelands. Synthesis and applications. Our results show how critical seasonal rainfall pulses are for regulating plant community compositional dynamics, which has significant implications for rangeland management and our ability to adapt and mitigate amplified climate influences in semi-arid ecosystems. |
英文关键词 | climate change drylands interspecific relationships plant life‐ forms plant– animal interactions rainfall event size rainfall seasonality synusiae |
类型 | Article ; Early Access |
语种 | 英语 |
收录类别 | SCI-E |
WOS记录号 | WOS:000582944700001 |
WOS关键词 | PRECIPITATION VARIABILITY ; PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY ; ECOSYSTEM ; GRASSLANDS ; RESPONSES ; CLIMATE ; FACILITATION ; SEASONALITY ; DROUGHT ; IMPACT |
WOS类目 | Biodiversity Conservation ; Ecology |
WOS研究方向 | Biodiversity & Conservation ; Environmental Sciences & Ecology |
来源机构 | 北京大学 ; University of Arizona |
资源类型 | 期刊论文 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/328395 |
作者单位 | [Liang, Maowei] Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Inst Ecol, Beijing, Peoples R China; [Liang, Maowei] Peking Univ, Minist Educ, Key Lab Earth Surface Proc, Beijing, Peoples R China; [Liang, Maowei; Feng, Xiao; Gornish, Elise S.] Univ Arizona, Sch Nat Resources & Environm, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA; [Feng, Xiao] Univ Arizona, Inst Environm, Tucson, AZ USA; [Feng, Xiao] Florida State Univ, Dept Geog, Tallahassee, FL 32306 USA |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Liang, Maowei,Feng, Xiao,Gornish, Elise S.. Rainfall pulses mediate long-term plant community compositional dynamics in a semi-arid rangeland[J]. 北京大学, University of Arizona. |
APA | Liang, Maowei,Feng, Xiao,&Gornish, Elise S.. |
MLA | Liang, Maowei,et al."Rainfall pulses mediate long-term plant community compositional dynamics in a semi-arid rangeland".JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY |
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