Effects of plant diversity on semiarid grassland stability depends on functional group composition and dynamics under N and P addition

Zhifei Chen; Peifeng Xiong; Junjie Zhou; Shuaibin Lai; Chunxia Jian; Weizhou Xu; Bingcheng Xu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149482

Effects of plant diversity on semiarid grassland stability depends on functional group composition and dynamics under N and P addition

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Dec 10:799:149482. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149482. Epub 2021 Aug 3.

Authors

Zhifei Chen¹, Peifeng Xiong², Junjie Zhou³, Shuaibin Lai³, Chunxia Jian³, Weizhou Xu⁴, Bingcheng Xu⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China; Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China.
² School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China.
⁴ College of Life Science, Yulin University, Yulin 719000, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China; Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: bcxu@ms.iswc.ac.cn.

PMID: 34365257
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149482

Abstract

Exogenous fertilization could efficiently improve grassland productivity and promote grassland restoration. Increasing fertilization may profoundly affect community stability, whereas the underlying compensatory dynamics among functional groups in regulating grassland stability remain unclear. Three different grasslands, annuals forb (AF) community, perennial grass (PG) community and perennial forb (PF) community, on semiarid Loess Plateau were selected. We designed a 3-year split-plot experiment (main-plot: 0, 25, 50, and 100 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1; subplot: 0, 20, 40 and 80 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1 yr^-1) to explore how N and P addition affects community stability and its relationship with species richness, species asynchrony and functional group stability. Temporal stability differed largely between functional groups under N and P addition, perennial forbs or grasses had higher stability than perennial legumes or annuals and biennials. Decreased stability of PG and PF communities was primarily due to reduced species asynchrony under N addition alone, while it attributed to increased dominance of perennial legumes after P addition alone. 50 and 100 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1 combined with P addition significantly increased dominance of annuals and biennials, but decreased stability of annuals and biennials, which caused significant declines in stability of the three communities. Significant species richness decline induced by N and P addition only occurred in AF community, which suppressed AF community stability through reducing species asynchrony. AF community stability was regulated by additively negative effect of diversity decline and decreased annuals and biennials stability. Whereas, in PG and PF communities, nutrient-induced changes of functional groups stability were the main driver of community stability rather than diversity. Our study highlights the role of functional group composition and dynamics in regulating the effects of diversity on community stability and rational N and P combined addition was essential for conserving stability of different grasslands on semiarid Loess Plateau.

Keywords: Fertilization; Functional group stability; Loess Plateau; Species asynchrony; Species richness; Temporal stability.

MeSH terms

Biodiversity
Fabaceae*
Grassland*
Poaceae