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

Juergen Kreyling (1) , Jürgen Dengler (2) , Julia Walter (3) , Nikolay Velev (4) , Emin Ugurlu (5) , Desislava Sopotlieva (4) , Johannes Ransijn (2) , Catherine Picon-Cochard (6) , Ivan Nijs (7) , Pauline Hernandez (6) , Behlül Guler (8) , Philipp von Gillhaussen (2) , Hans J. de Boeck (7) , Juliette Bloor (6) , Sigi Berwaers (7) , Carl Beierkuhnlein (2) , Mohammed A.S. Arfin Khan (2) , Iva Apostolova (4) , Yasin Altan (8) , Michaela Zeiter (9) , Camilla Wellstein (10) , Marcelo Sternberg (11) , Andreas Stampfli (9) , Giandiego Campetella (12) , Sandor Bartha (13) , Michael Bahn (14) , Anke Jentsch (2)

1 Universität Greifswald - University of Greifswald
2 University of Bayreuth
3 University of Hohenheim
4 BAS - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
5 Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi
6 UREP - Unité Mixte de Recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial - UMR
7 UA - University of Antwerp
8 Department of Biology
9 BFH - Bern University of Applied Sciences
10 Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
11 TAU - Tel Aviv University
12 UNICAM - Università degli Studi di Camerino = University of Camerino
13 MTA Centre for Ecological Research
14 Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck - University of Innsbruck

Biodiversity can buffer ecosystem functioning against extreme climatic events, but few experiments have explicitly tested this. Here, we present the first multisite biodiversityxdrought 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

Mots clés: résilience; événement écologique extrème

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Juergen Kreyling, Jürgen Dengler, Julia Walter, Nikolay Velev, Emin Ugurlu, et al.. Species richness effects on grassland recovery from drought depend on community productivity in a multisite experiment. Ecology Letters, 2017, 20 (11), pp.1405-1413. ⟨10.1111/ele.12848⟩. ⟨hal-02627647⟩