Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment

Juergen Kreyling; Jürgen Dengler; Julia Walter; Nikolay Velev; Emin Ugurlu; Desislava Sopotlieva; Johannes Ransijn; Catherine Picon-Cochard; Ivan Nijs; Pauline Hernandez; Behlül Güler; Philipp von Gillhaussen; Hans J. De Boeck; Juliette M.G. Bloor; Sigi Berwaers; Carl Beierkuhnlein; Mohammed A.S. Arfin Khan; Iva Apostolova; Yasin Altan; Michaela Zeiter; Camilla Wellstein; Marcelo Sternberg; Andreas Stampfli; Giandiego Campetella; Sándor Bartha; Michael Bahn; Anke Jentsch

doi:10.1111/ele.12848

Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment

Juergen Kreyling, Jürgen Dengler, Julia Walter, Nikolay Velev, Emin Ugurlu, Desislava Sopotlieva, Johannes Ransijn, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Ivan Nijs, Pauline Hernandez, Behlül Güler, Philipp von Gillhaussen, Hans J. De Boeck, Juliette M.G. Bloor, Sigi Berwaers, Carl Beierkuhnlein, Mohammed A.S. Arfin Khan, Iva Apostolova, Yasin Altan, Michaela ZeiterCamilla Wellstein, Marcelo Sternberg, Andreas Stampfli, Giandiego Campetella, Sándor Bartha, Michael Bahn, Anke Jentsch

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63 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Biodiversity can buffer ecosystem functioning against extreme climatic events, but few experiments have explicitly tested this. Here, we present the first multisite biodiversity × drought manipulation experiment to examine drought resistance and recovery at five temperate and Mediterranean grassland sites. Aboveground biomass production declined by 30% due to experimental drought (standardised local extremity by rainfall exclusion for 72–98 consecutive days). Species richness did not affect resistance but promoted recovery. Recovery was only positively affected by species richness in low-productive communities, with most diverse communities even showing overcompensation. This positive diversity effect could be linked to asynchrony of species responses. Our results suggest that a more context-dependent view considering the nature of the climatic disturbance as well as the productivity of the studied system will help identify under which circumstances biodiversity promotes drought resistance or recovery. Stability of biomass production can generally be expected to decrease with biodiversity loss and climate change.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1405-1413
Number of pages	9
Journal	Ecology Letters
Volume	20
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12848
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2017

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10.1111/ele.12848

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Kreyling, J., Dengler, J., Walter, J., Velev, N., Ugurlu, E., Sopotlieva, D., Ransijn, J., Picon-Cochard, C., Nijs, I., Hernandez, P., Güler, B., von Gillhaussen, P., De Boeck, H. J., Bloor, J. M. G., Berwaers, S., Beierkuhnlein, C., Arfin Khan, M. A. S., Apostolova, I., Altan, Y., ... Jentsch, A. (2017). Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment. Ecology Letters, 20(11), 1405-1413. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12848

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title = "Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment",

abstract = "Biodiversity can buffer ecosystem functioning against extreme climatic events, but few experiments have explicitly tested this. Here, we present the first multisite biodiversity × drought manipulation experiment to examine drought resistance and recovery at five temperate and Mediterranean grassland sites. Aboveground biomass production declined by 30% due to experimental drought (standardised local extremity by rainfall exclusion for 72–98 consecutive days). Species richness did not affect resistance but promoted recovery. Recovery was only positively affected by species richness in low-productive communities, with most diverse communities even showing overcompensation. This positive diversity effect could be linked to asynchrony of species responses. Our results suggest that a more context-dependent view considering the nature of the climatic disturbance as well as the productivity of the studied system will help identify under which circumstances biodiversity promotes drought resistance or recovery. Stability of biomass production can generally be expected to decrease with biodiversity loss and climate change.",

keywords = "Asynchrony, coordinated distributed experiment, diversity–stability relationship, extreme event ecology, insurance hypothesis, resilience",

author = "Juergen Kreyling and J{\"u}rgen Dengler and Julia Walter and Nikolay Velev and Emin Ugurlu and Desislava Sopotlieva and Johannes Ransijn and Catherine Picon-Cochard and Ivan Nijs and Pauline Hernandez and Behl{\"u}l G{\"u}ler and {von Gillhaussen}, Philipp and {De Boeck}, {Hans J.} and Bloor, {Juliette M.G.} and Sigi Berwaers and Carl Beierkuhnlein and {Arfin Khan}, {Mohammed A.S.} and Iva Apostolova and Yasin Altan and Michaela Zeiter and Camilla Wellstein and Marcelo Sternberg and Andreas Stampfli and Giandiego Campetella and S{\'a}ndor Bartha and Michael Bahn and Anke Jentsch",

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month = nov,

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doi = "10.1111/ele.12848",

language = "English",

volume = "20",

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Kreyling, J, Dengler, J, Walter, J, Velev, N, Ugurlu, E, Sopotlieva, D, Ransijn, J, Picon-Cochard, C, Nijs, I, Hernandez, P, Güler, B, von Gillhaussen, P, De Boeck, HJ, Bloor, JMG, Berwaers, S, Beierkuhnlein, C, Arfin Khan, MAS, Apostolova, I, Altan, Y, Zeiter, M, Wellstein, C, Sternberg, M, Stampfli, A, Campetella, G, Bartha, S, Bahn, M & Jentsch, A 2017, 'Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment', Ecology Letters, vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 1405-1413. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12848

TY - JOUR

T1 - Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment

AU - Kreyling, Juergen

AU - Dengler, Jürgen

AU - Walter, Julia

AU - Velev, Nikolay

AU - Ugurlu, Emin

AU - Sopotlieva, Desislava

AU - Ransijn, Johannes

AU - Picon-Cochard, Catherine

AU - Nijs, Ivan

AU - Hernandez, Pauline

AU - Güler, Behlül

AU - von Gillhaussen, Philipp

AU - De Boeck, Hans J.

AU - Bloor, Juliette M.G.

AU - Berwaers, Sigi

AU - Beierkuhnlein, Carl

AU - Arfin Khan, Mohammed A.S.

AU - Apostolova, Iva

AU - Altan, Yasin

AU - Zeiter, Michaela

AU - Wellstein, Camilla

AU - Sternberg, Marcelo

AU - Stampfli, Andreas

AU - Campetella, Giandiego

AU - Bartha, Sándor

AU - Bahn, Michael

AU - Jentsch, Anke

PY - 2017/11/1

Y1 - 2017/11/1

N2 - Biodiversity can buffer ecosystem functioning against extreme climatic events, but few experiments have explicitly tested this. Here, we present the first multisite biodiversity × drought manipulation experiment to examine drought resistance and recovery at five temperate and Mediterranean grassland sites. Aboveground biomass production declined by 30% due to experimental drought (standardised local extremity by rainfall exclusion for 72–98 consecutive days). Species richness did not affect resistance but promoted recovery. Recovery was only positively affected by species richness in low-productive communities, with most diverse communities even showing overcompensation. This positive diversity effect could be linked to asynchrony of species responses. Our results suggest that a more context-dependent view considering the nature of the climatic disturbance as well as the productivity of the studied system will help identify under which circumstances biodiversity promotes drought resistance or recovery. Stability of biomass production can generally be expected to decrease with biodiversity loss and climate change.

AB - Biodiversity can buffer ecosystem functioning against extreme climatic events, but few experiments have explicitly tested this. Here, we present the first multisite biodiversity × drought manipulation experiment to examine drought resistance and recovery at five temperate and Mediterranean grassland sites. Aboveground biomass production declined by 30% due to experimental drought (standardised local extremity by rainfall exclusion for 72–98 consecutive days). Species richness did not affect resistance but promoted recovery. Recovery was only positively affected by species richness in low-productive communities, with most diverse communities even showing overcompensation. This positive diversity effect could be linked to asynchrony of species responses. Our results suggest that a more context-dependent view considering the nature of the climatic disturbance as well as the productivity of the studied system will help identify under which circumstances biodiversity promotes drought resistance or recovery. Stability of biomass production can generally be expected to decrease with biodiversity loss and climate change.

KW - Asynchrony

KW - coordinated distributed experiment

KW - diversity–stability relationship

KW - extreme event ecology

KW - insurance hypothesis

KW - resilience

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U2 - 10.1111/ele.12848

DO - 10.1111/ele.12848

M3 - Letter

C2 - 28941071

AN - SCOPUS:85030114960

VL - 20

SP - 1405

EP - 1413

JO - Ecology Letters

JF - Ecology Letters

SN - 1461-023X

IS - 11

ER -

Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment

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