Synergy of extreme drought and shrub invasion reduce ecosystem functioning and resilience in water-limited climates.

ABSTRACT: Extreme drought events and plant invasions are major drivers of global change that can critically affect ecosystem functioning and alter ecosystem-atmosphere exchange. Invaders are expanding worldwide and extreme drought events are projected to increase in frequency and intensity. However, very little is known on how these drivers may interact to affect the functioning and resilience of ecosystems to extreme events. Using a manipulative shrub removal experiment and the co-occurrence of an extreme drought event (2011/2012) in a Mediterranean woodland, we show that native shrub invasion and extreme drought synergistically reduced ecosystem transpiration and the resilience of key-stone oak tree species. Ecosystem transpiration was dominated by the water use of the invasive shrub Cistus ladani

SUBMITTER: Caldeira MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4602198 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature