Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands.

ABSTRACT: Functional traits are proxies for plant physiology and performance, which do not only differ between species but also within species. In this work, we hypothesized that (a) with increasing precipitation, the percentage of focal species which significantly respond to changes in grazing intensity increases, while under dry conditions, climate-induced stress is so high that plant species hardly respond to any changes in grazing intensity and that (b) the magnitude with which species change their trait values in response to grazing, reflected by coefficients of variation (CVs), increases with increasing precipitation. Chosen plant traits were canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area (SLA), chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, stomatal pore area index (SPI), and individual abovegr

SUBMITTER: Lang B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6988561 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature