Land use modulates resistance of grasslands against future climate and inter-annual climate variability in a large field experiment

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Lotte Korell
  • Martin Andrzejak
  • Sigrid Berger
  • Walter Durka
  • Sylvia Haider
  • Isabell Hensen
  • Yva Herion
  • Johannes Höfner
  • Liana Kindermann
  • Stefan Klotz
  • Tiffany M. Knight
  • Anja Linstädter
  • Anna Maria Madaj
  • Ines Merbach
  • Stefan Michalski
  • Carolin Plos
  • Christiane Roscher
  • Martin Schädler
  • Erik Welk
  • Harald Auge

Climate and land-use change are key drivers of global change. Full-factorial field experiments in which both drivers are manipulated are essential to understand and predict their potentially interactive effects on the structure and functioning of grassland ecosystems. Here, we present 8 years of data on grassland dynamics from the Global Change Experimental Facility in Central Germany. On large experimental plots, temperature and seasonal patterns of precipitation are manipulated by superimposing regional climate model projections onto background climate variability. Climate manipulation is factorially crossed with agricultural land-use scenarios, including intensively used meadows and extensively used (i.e., low-intensity) meadows and pastures. Inter-annual variation of background climate during our study years was high, including three of the driest years on record for our region. The effects of this temporal variability far exceeded the effects of the experimentally imposed climate change on plant species diversity and productivity, especially in the intensively used grasslands sown with only a few grass cultivars. These changes in productivity and diversity in response to alterations in climate were due to immigrant species replacing the target forage cultivars. This shift from forage cultivars to immigrant species may impose additional economic costs in terms of a decreasing forage value and the need for more frequent management measures. In contrast, the extensively used grasslands showed weaker responses to both experimentally manipulated future climate and inter-annual climate variability, suggesting that these diverse grasslands are more resistant to climate change than intensively used, species-poor grasslands. We therefore conclude that a lower management intensity of agricultural grasslands, associated with a higher plant diversity, can stabilize primary productivity under climate change.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere17418
JournalGlobal Change Biology
Volume30
Issue number7
Number of pages16
ISSN1354-1013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.07.2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Global Change Biology© 2024 The Author(s). Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

    Research areas

  • ANPP, climate change, community dynamics, Global Change Experimental Facility, grazing, land-use intensity, mowing, plant diversity
  • Biology

DOI

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