Belowground carbon allocation, root trait plasticity, and productivity during drought and warming in a pasture grass.

ABSTRACT: Sustaining grassland production in a changing climate requires an understanding of plant adaptation strategies, including trait plasticity under warmer and drier conditions. However, our knowledge to date disproportionately relies on aboveground responses, despite the importance of belowground traits in maintaining aboveground growth, especially in grazed systems. We subjected a perennial pasture grass, Festuca arundinacea, to year-round warming (+3 °C) and cool-season drought (60% rainfall reduction) in a factorial field experiment to test the hypotheses that: (i) drought and warming increase carbon allocation belowground and shift root traits towards greater resource acquisition and (ii) increased belowground carbon reserves support post-drought aboveground recovery. Drought and warming

SUBMITTER: Chandregowda MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10084810 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature