Related Content
Search Google Scholar for:
More Information
Related Jobs from ScienceCareers
|
|
Science 13 December 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5601, pp. 2202 - 2205
DOI: 10.1126/science.1076347
|
|
Reports
Rainfall Variability, Carbon Cycling, and Plant Species Diversity in a Mesic Grassland
Alan K. Knapp,1*
Philip A. Fay,1
John M. Blair,1
Scott L. Collins,12
Melinda D. Smith,3
Jonathan D. Carlisle,1
Christopher W. Harper,1
Brett T. Danner,1
Michelle S. Lett,1
James K. McCarron1
Ecosystem responses to increased variability in
rainfall, a prediction of general circulation models, were assessed in
native grassland by reducing storm frequency and increasing rainfall quantity per storm during a 4-year experiment. More extreme rainfall patterns, without concurrent changes in total rainfall quantity, increased temporal variability in soil moisture and plant species diversity. However, carbon cycling processes such as soil
CO2 flux, CO2 uptake by the dominant grasses,
and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) were reduced, and ANPP
was more responsive to soil moisture variability than to mean soil
water content. Our results show that projected increases in rainfall
variability can rapidly alter key carbon cycling processes and plant
community composition, independent of changes in total precipitation.
1 Division of Biology, Kansas State University,
Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
2 Ecological Studies
Program, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA 22230, USA.
3 National Center for Ecological Analysis and
Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
aknapp{at}ksu.edu
Read the Full Text
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
- Impact of an extreme climatic event on community assembly.
- K. M. Thibault and J. H. Brown (2008)
PNAS
105, 3410-3415
| Abstract »
| Full Text »
| PDF »
- Stable-carbon isotope composition of Poaceae pollen: an assessment for reconstructing C3 and C4 grass abundance.
- D. M. Nelson, F. S. Hu, and R. H. Michener (2006)
The Holocene
16, 819-825
| Abstract »
| PDF »
- Climate variability has a stabilizing effect on the coexistence of prairie grasses.
- P. B. Adler, J. HilleRisLambers, P. C. Kyriakidis, Q. Guan, and J. M. Levine (2006)
PNAS
103, 12793-12798
| Abstract »
| Full Text »
| PDF »
- Can rDNA analyses of diverse fungal communities in soil and roots detect effects of environmental manipulations--a case study from tallgrass prairie..
- A. Jumpponen and L. C. Johnson (2005)
Mycologia
97, 1177-1194
| Abstract »
| Full Text »
| PDF »
- Response of C3 and C4 plants to middle-Holocene climatic variation near the prairie-forest ecotone of Minnesota.
- D. M. Nelson, F. S. Hu, J. Tian, I. Stefanova, and T. A. Brown (2004)
PNAS
101, 562-567
| Abstract »
| Full Text »
| PDF »
|
|
