Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22766-0
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Responses of plant diversity to precipitation change are strongest at local spatial scales and in drylands
Author Korell, L.; Auge, H. ORCID logo ; Chase, J.M.; Harpole, W.S. ORCID logo ; Knight, T.M.
Source Titel Nature Communications
Year 2021
Department BZF; iDiv; PHYDIV
Volume 12
Page From art. 2489
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kd1d4
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14061260
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41467-021-22766-0/MediaObjects/41467_2021_22766_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Keywords climate change experiments; meta-analysis; plant biodiversity; precipitation manipulation; spatial scale; terrestrial ecoystems; drylands
Abstract Mitigating and adapting to climate change requires an understanding of the magnitude and nature by which climate change will influence the diversity of plants across the world’s ecosystems. Experiments can causally link precipitation change to plant diversity change, however, these experiments vary in their methods and in the diversity metrics reported, making synthesis elusive. Here, we explicitly account for a number of potentially confounding variables, including spatial grain, treatment magnitude and direction and background climatic conditions, to synthesize data across 72 precipitation manipulation experiments. We find that the effects of treatments with higher magnitude of precipitation manipulation on plant diversity are strongest at the smallest spatial scale, and in drier environments. Our synthesis emphasizes that quantifying differential responses of ecosystems requires explicit consideration of spatial grain and the magnitude of experimental manipulation. Given that diversity provides essential ecosystem services, especially in dry and semi-dry areas, our finding that these dry ecosystems are particular sensitive to projected changes in precipitation has important implications for their conservation and management.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=24542
Korell, L., Auge, H., Chase, J.M., Harpole, W.S., Knight, T.M. (2021):
Responses of plant diversity to precipitation change are strongest at local spatial scales and in drylands
Nat. Commun. 12 , art. 2489 10.1038/s41467-021-22766-0