Responses of plant community composition and biomass production to warming and nitrogen deposition in a temperate meadow ecosystem

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 13;10(4):e0123160. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123160. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Climate change has profound influences on plant community composition and ecosystem functions. However, its effects on plant community composition and biomass production are not well understood. A four-year field experiment was conducted to examine the effects of warming, nitrogen (N) addition, and their interactions on plant community composition and biomass production in a temperate meadow ecosystem in northeast China. Experimental warming had no significant effect on plant species richness, evenness, and diversity, while N addition highly reduced the species richness and diversity. Warming tended to reduce the importance value of graminoid species but increased the value of forbs, while N addition had the opposite effect. Warming tended to increase the belowground biomass, but had an opposite tendency to decrease the aboveground biomass. The influences of warming on aboveground production were dependent upon precipitation. Experimental warming had little effect on aboveground biomass in the years with higher precipitation, but significantly suppressed aboveground biomass in dry years. Our results suggest that warming had indirect effects on plant production via its effect on the water availability. Nitrogen addition significantly increased above- and below-ground production, suggesting that N is one of the most important limiting factors determining plant productivity in the studied meadow steppe. Significant interactive effects of warming plus N addition on belowground biomass were also detected. Our observations revealed that environmental changes (warming and N deposition) play significant roles in regulating plant community composition and biomass production in temperate meadow steppe ecosystem in northeast China.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture / methods*
  • Biomass*
  • China
  • Climate
  • Climate Change
  • Ecosystem
  • Global Warming*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Nitrogen / chemistry*
  • Poaceae / physiology*
  • Soil
  • Temperature
  • Water / chemistry

Substances

  • Soil
  • Water
  • Nitrogen

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170303, 31300097, 31100322 and 31270445), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0814), State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 12QNJJ017). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.