Altered rainfall patterns increase forb abundance and richness in native tallgrass prairie.

ABSTRACT: Models predict that precipitation variability will increase with climate change. We used a 15-year precipitation manipulation experiment to determine if altering the timing and amount of growing season rainfall will impact plant community structure in annually burned, native tallgrass prairie. The altered precipitation treatment maintained the same total growing season precipitation as the ambient precipitation treatment, but received a rainfall regime of fewer, larger rain events, and longer intervals between events each growing season. Although this change in precipitation regime significantly lowered mean soil water content, overall this plant community was remarkably resistant to altered precipitation with species composition relatively stable over time. However, we found significantly

SUBMITTER: Jones SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735582 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature