Divergent resource limitations of belowground versus aboveground productivity across grasslands.

ABSTRACT: Water and nutrients are fundamental resources that constrain grassland productivity. Despite significant advances in our understanding of aboveground resource limitations, it remains unresolved whether these insights can be applied to belowground productivity. Here, by combining meta-analyses of 387 nitrogen (N) and 299 phosphorus (P) addition experiments with our long-term experiment in grasslands, we find that, globally, belowground productivity experiences peak N limitation under intermediate precipitation, despite N limitation on aboveground productivity intensifying with increasing precipitation. Moreover, this global pattern of belowground N limitation is mirrored in temporal dynamics. These consistent patterns suggest that belowground N limitation relies strongly and nonlinearly on

SUBMITTER: Li T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12789675 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature