Drought of early time in growing season decreases community aboveground biomass, but increases belowground biomass in a desert steppe.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Increasing drought induced by global climate changes is altering the structure and function of grassland ecosystems. However, there is a lack of understanding of how drought affects the trade-off of above- and belowground biomass in desert steppe. We conducted a four-year (2015-2018) drought experiment to examine the responses of community above-and belowground biomass (AGB and BGB) to manipulated drought and natural drought in the early period of growing season (from March to June) in a desert steppe. We compared the associations of drought with species diversity (species richness and density), community-weighted means (CWM) of five traits, and soil factors (soil Water, soil carbon content, and soil nitrogen content) for grass communities. Meanwhile, we used the structu

SUBMITTER: Li X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8170925 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature