Title: Mean annual precipitation predicts primary production resistance and resilience to extreme drought

Abstract

Extreme drought is increasing in frequency and intensity in many regions globally, with uncertain consequences for the resistance and resilience of ecosystem functions, including primary production. Primary production resistance, the capacity to withstand change during extreme drought, and resilience, the degree to which production recovers, vary among and within ecosystem types, obscuring generalized patterns of ecological stability. Theory and many observations suggest forest production is more resistant but less resilient than grassland production to extreme drought; however, studies of production sensitivity to precipitation variability indicate that the processes controlling resistance and resilience may be influenced more by mean annual precipitation (MAP) than ecosystem type. Here, we conducted a global meta-analysis to investigate primary production resistance and resilience to extreme drought in 64 forests and grasslands across a broad MAP gradient. We found resistance to extreme drought was predicted by MAP; however, grasslands (positive) and forests (negative) exhibited opposing resilience relationships with MAP. Our findings indicate that common plant physiological mechanisms may determine grassland and forest resistance to extreme drought, whereas differences among plant residents in turnover time, plant architecture, and drought adaptive strategies likely underlie divergent resilience patterns. Finally, the low resistance and resilience of dry grasslands suggests that thesemore » ecosystems are the most vulnerable to extreme drought – a vulnerability that is expected to compound as extreme drought frequency increases in the future.« less

Authors:

Stuart-Haentjens, Ellen  ^[1];

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De Boeck, Hans J. ^[2]; Lemoine, Nathan P. ^[3]; Mand, Pille ^[4]; Kroel-Dulay, Gyorgy ^[5]; Schmidt, Inger K. ^[6]; Jentsch, Anke ^[7]; Stampfli, Andreas ^[8]; Anderegg, William R. L. ^[9]; Bahn, Michael ^[10]; Kreyling, Juergen ^[11]; Wohlgemuth, Thomas ^[12]; Lloret, Francisco ^[13]; Classen, Aimee T. ^[14]; Gough, Christopher M. ^[1]; Smith, Melinda D. ^[3]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond, VA (United States). Dept. of Biology
2. Univ. of Antwerp (Belgium). Dept. of Biology
3. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
4. Univ. of Tartu (Estonia). Inst. of Ecology and Earth Sciences, Dept. of Botany
5. MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest (Hungary). Inst. of Ecology and Botany
6. Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark). Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management
7. Univ. of Bayreuth, Bayreuth (Germany). Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research, Dept. of Disturbance Ecology
8. Bern Univ. of Applied Sciences, Bern (Switzerland). School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
9. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Dept. of Biology
10. Univ. of Innsbruck, Innsbruck (Austria). Inst. of Ecology
11. Univ. of Greifswald, Greifswald (Germany). Inst. of Botany and Landscape Ecology
12. Swiss Federal Inst. for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Zurich (Switzerland)
13. Univ. Autonoma of Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain). Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF)
14. Univ. of Vermont, Burlington, VT (United States). Rubenstein School of Environment & Natural Resources

Publication Date:

2018-04-27

Research Org.:

Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

OSTI Identifier:

1435432

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1548409

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0010562

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Science of the Total Environment

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 636; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0048-9697

Publisher:

Elsevier

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Forest; Grassland; Extreme drought; Primary productivity; Resistance; Resilience