biostudies-literatureKomatsu KJNatural Environment Research CouncilNational Science Foundation17867-17873https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC6731679biostudies-literatureUnknown116(36)Global change drivers (GCDs) are expected to alter community structure and consequently, the services that ecosystems provide. Yet, few experimental investigations have examined effects of GCDs on plant community structure across multiple ecosystem types, and those that do exist present conflicting patterns. In an unprecedented global synthesis of over 100 experiments that manipulated factors linked to GCDs, we show that herbaceous plant community responses depend on experimental manipulation length and number of factors manipulated. We found that plant communities are fairly resistant to experimentally manipulated GCDs in the short term (<10 y). In contrast, long-term (≥10 y) experiments show increasing community divergence of treatments from control conditions. Surprisingly, these communProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of AmericaGlobal change effects on plant communities are magnified by time and the number of global change factors imposed.PMC6731679ceh010010#EF-0553768DBI-1052875DEB#1545288Morgan JWKnapp AKHouseman GRSeabloom EWBaer SGZhang PBork EWJohnson DSReich PBOnipchenko VBaldwin AHMcLaren JRKern CBloor JMGBohlen PJRobinson CHCornelissen JHCJagerbrand ACollins SLHarmens HBritton AJAlatalo JMPrice JNBowman WDIsbell FFoster BKlanderud KTilman DCahill JFSoudzilovskaia NABoughton EHLi WMegonigal JPWilcox KRSouza LKreyling JDu GFirn JRussell FLSmith MDBates JXu ZGrman EYu QKomatsu KJHovenden MJWhite SHan XYahdjian LChaneton EHallett LMAerts RPennings SCLemoine NPChiariello NRCheng JGough LPrevey JSSuttle KBAvolio MLBlair JMcCulley RLTognetti PEskelinen AKoerner SEBeierkuhnlein CSuding KSvejcar TZhang YJentsch AGross KLuo YSala OEAnderson JPBelote RTTurkington RfalseGlobal change effects on plant communities are magnified by time and the number of global change factors imposed.Global change drivers (GCDs) are expected to alter community structure and consequently, the services that ecosystems provide. Yet, few experimental investigations have examined effects of GCDs on plant community structure across multiple ecosystem types, and those that do exist present conflicting patterns. In an unprecedented global synthesis of over 100 experiments that manipulated factors linked to GCDs, we show that herbaceous plant community responses depend on experimental manipulation length and number of factors manipulated. We found that plant communities are fairly resistant to experimentally manipulated GCDs in the short term (<10 y). In contrast, long-term (≥10 y) experiments show increasing community divergence of treatments from control conditions. Surprisingly, these commun2019-01-01T00:00:00Z2019 Sep2025-04-18T15:51:43.347Z2025-04-07T02:42:04.741ZS-EPMC67316793142751010.1073/pnas.1819027116