Effects of plant productivity and species richness on the drought response of soil respiration in temperate grasslands.

ABSTRACT: Soil respiration plays a crucial role in global carbon cycling. While the response of soil respiration to abiotic drivers like soil temperature and moisture is fairly well understood, less is known about the effects of biotic drivers, such as plant above- and belowground productivity or plant diversity, and their interactions with abiotic drivers on soil respiration. Thus, current predictions of soil respiration to summer droughts might miss relevant biological drivers and their interactions with abiotic drivers. Since drought events are expected to increase in Central Europe in the future, we simulated early summer drought using rainout shelters at 19 grassland sites, which differed in plant productivity and species richness in central Germany in 2002 and 2003. We tested the potentially i

SUBMITTER: Burri S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6303019 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature