Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Drought timing differentially affects above- and belowground productivity in a mesic grassland

  • Published:
Plant Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Climate models forecast an intensification of the global hydrological cycle with droughts becoming more frequent and severe, and shifting to times when they have been historically uncommon. Droughts, or prolonged periods of precipitation deficiency, are characteristic of most temperate grasslands, yet few experiments have explored how variation in the seasonal timing of drought may impact ecosystem function. We investigated the response of above- and belowground net primary production (ANPP & BNPP) to altered drought timing in a mesic grassland in NE Kansas. Moderate drought treatments (25% reduction from the mean growing season precipitation [GSP]) were imposed by erecting rainout shelters in late spring (LSP), early summer (ESM), and mid-summer (MSM, n = 10 plots/treatment). These treatments were compared to two controls (long-term average GSP [LTA] and ambient GSP [AMB]) and a wet treatment (+30% of the long-term average GSP [WET]). We found that LSP drought did not significantly reduce ANPP relative to control plots while the ESM and MSM drought did despite equivalent reductions in soil moisture. In contrast, the WET treatment did not affect ANPP. Neither the WET nor the drought treatments altered BNPP as compared to the controls. Our results suggest that forecasts of ecosystem responses to climate change will be improved if both the seasonal timing of alterations in precipitation as well as differential responses of above- and belowground productivity to drought are incorporated into models.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baer SG, Blair JM, Collins SL, Knapp AK (2003) Soil resources regulate productivity and diversity in newly established tallgrass prairie. Ecology 84:724–735

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates JD, Svejcar T, Miller RF, Angell RA (2006) The effects of precipitation timing on sagebrush steppe vegetation. J Arid Environ 64:670–697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair JM (1997) Fire, N availability, and plant response in grasslands: a test of the transient maxima hypothesis. Ecology 78:2359–2368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briggs JM (1972-present) Konza prairie fire history. Data code KFH011. http://www.konza.ksu.edu/knz/pages/data/KnzEntity.aspx?id=KFH011. Accessed 2013

  • Briggs JM (1982-present) Daily weather data. Data code AWE012. http://www.konza.ksu.edu/knz/pages/data/KnzEntity.aspx?id=AGW012. Accessed 2013

  • Briggs JM, Knapp AK (1995) Interannual variability in primary production in tallgrass prairie: climate, soil moisture, topographic position, and fire as determinants of aboveground biomass. Am J Bot 82:1024–1030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briggs JM, Knapp AK (2001) Determinants of C3 forb growth and production in a C4 dominated grassland. Plant Ecol 152:93–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne KM, Lauenroth WK, Adler PB (2013) Contrasting effects of precipitation manipulations on production in two sites within the central grassland region, USA. Ecosystems 16:1039–1051

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen G et al (2012) Drought in the Southern United States over the 20th century: variability and its impacts on terrestrial ecosystem productivity and carbon storage. Clim Chang 114:379–397

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cherwin K, Knapp A (2012) Unexpected patterns of sensitivity to drought in three semi-arid grasslands. Oecologia 169:845–852

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chou WW, Silver WL, Jackson RD, Thompson AW, Allen-Diaz B (2008) The sensitivity of annual grassland carbon cycling to the quantity and timing of rainfall. Glob Chang Biol 14:1382–1394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christensen JH et al (2007) Regional climate projections In: Solomon S, D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor, Miller HL (eds) Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA

  • de Vries FT, Liiri ME, Bjørnlund L, Setälä HM, Christensen S, Bardgett RD (2012) Legacy effects of drought on plant growth and the soil food web. Oecologia 170:821–833

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Derner JD et al (2003) Above- and below-ground responses of C3–C4 species mixtures to elevated CO2 and soil water availability. Glob Chang Biol 9:452–460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietrich JD, Smith MD (2016) The effect of timing of growing season drought on flowering of a dominant C4 grass. Oecologia 181(2):391–399

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn OJ (1961) Multiple comparisons among means. J Am Stat Assoc 56:52–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein HE, Burke IC, Mosier AR (1998) Plant effects on spatial and temporal patterns of nitrogen cycling in shortgrass steppe. Ecosystems 1:374–385

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Evans SE, Burke IC (2013) Carbon and nitrogen decoupling under an 11-year drought in the shortgrass steppe. Ecosystems 16:20–33

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fay PA, Carlisle JD, Knapp AK, Blair JM, Collins SL (2003) Productivity responses to altered rainfall patterns in a C4-dominated grassland. Oecologia 137:245–251

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forman SL, Oglesby R, Webb RS (2001) Temporal and spatial patterns of Holocene dune activity on the Great Plains of North America: megadroughts and climate links. Glob Planet Chang 29:1–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank DA (2007) Drought effects on above- and belowground production of a grazed temperate grassland ecosystem. Oecologia 152:131–139

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gamon JA et al (1995) Relationships between NDVI, canopy structure, and photosynthesis in three Californian vegetation types. Ecol Appl 5:28–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gill RA et al (2002) Using simple environmental variables to estimate belowground productivity in grasslands. Global Ecol Biogeogr 11:79–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hafid RE, Smith DH, Karrou M, Samir K (1998) Morphological attributes associated with early-season drought tolerance in spring durum wheat in a Mediterranean environment. Euphytica 101:273–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes DC, Seastedt TR (1987) Root dynamics of tallgrass prairie in wet and dry years. Can J Botany 65:787–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heckathorm SA, DeLucia EH (1991) Effect of leaf rolling on gas exchange and leaf temperature of Andropogon gerardii and Spartina pectinata. Bot Gaz 152(3):263–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heim RR (2002) A review of twentieth-century drought indices used in the United States. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 83:1149–1165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heitschmidt RK, Vermeire LT (2006) Can abundant summer precipitation counter losses in herbage production caused by spring drought? Rangel Ecol Manag 59:392–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoover DL (2014) Ecological responses to climate extremes in a mesic grassland. Dissertation, Colorado State University

  • Hsu JS, Powell J, Adler PB (2012) Sensitivity of mean annual primary production to precipitation. Glob Chang Biol 18:2246–2255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huxman TE et al (2004) Convergence across biomes to a common rain-use efficiency. Nature 425:652–654

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2013) Summary for Policymakers. In: Stocker TF, Qin D, Plattner G-K, Tignor M, Allen SK, Boschung J, Nauels A, Xia Y, Bex V, Midgley PM (eds) Climate Change 2013: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA

  • Ji L, Peters AJ (2003) Assessing vegetation response to drought in the northern Great Plains using vegetation and drought indices. Remote Sens Environ 87:85–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jongen M, Pereira JS, Aires LMI, Pio CA (2011) The effects of drought and timing of precipitation on the inter-annual variation in ecosystem-atmosphere exchange in a Mediterranean grassland. Agr For Meteorol 151:595–606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kang M, Dai C, Ji W, Jiang Y, Yuan Z, Chen HYH (2013) Biomass and its allocation in relation to temperature, precipitation, and soil nutrients in Inner Mongolia grasslands, China. PLoS ONE 7:e69561

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp AK, Smith MD (2001) Variation among biomes in temporal dynamics of aboveground primary production. Science 291:481–484

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp AK, Briggs JM, Hartnett DC, Collins SL (eds) (1998) Grassland dynamics: long-term ecological research in tallgrass prairie. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Knapp AK et al (2002) Rainfall variability, carbon cycling, and plant species diversity in a mesic grassland. Science 298:2202–2205

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kong DL, Lu XT, Jiang LL, Wu HF, Miao Y, Kardol P (2013) Inter-annual precipitation fluctuations alter the responses of above- and belowground biomass to water and N enrichment. Biogeosciences Discuss 10:13427–13454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kunkel KE, Liang X-Z (2004) GCM simulations of the climate in the central United States. J Clim 18:1016–1031

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kunkel KE et al (2013) Regional climate trends and scenarios for the U.S. National Climate Assessment. Part 4. Climate of the U.S. Great Plains NOAA Technical Report NESMDIS, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington DC, USA

  • La Pierre KJ (2013) Drivers of grassland community structure and ecosystem function: The role of biotic factors in determining the ecosystem response to alterations in resource availability. Dissertation, Yale University

  • La Pierre KJ et al (2011) Explaining temporal variation in above-ground productivity in a mesic grassland: the role of climate and flowering. J Ecol 99:1250–1262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauenroth WK, Sala OE (1992) Long-term forage production of North American shortgrass steppe. Ecol Appl 2:397–403

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCulley RL, Burke IC, Lauenroth WK (2009) Conservation of nitrogen increases with precipitation across a major grassland gradient in the Central Great Plains of North America. Oecologia 159(3):571–581

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meehl GA et al (2006) Climate change projections for the twenty-first century and climate change commitment in the CCSM3. J Clim 19:2597–2616

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montagnoli A, Terzaghi M, Scippa GS, Chiatante D (2014) Heterorhizy can lead to underestimation of fine-root production when using mesh-based techniques. Acta Oecol 58:84–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Climate Data Center’s Global Historical Climatology Network, Manhattan, KS. Stations ID: USC00144972. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/ghcn-daily/index.php. Accessed 2012

  • Olsen JT, Caudle KL, Johnson LC, Saer SG, Maricle BR (2013) Environmental and genetic variation in leaf anatomy among populations of Andropogon gerardii (Poaceae) along a precipitation gradient. Am J Bot 100(10):1957–1968

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paruelo JM, Lauenroth WK (1995) Regional patterns of normalized difference vegetation index in North American shrublands and grasslands. Ecology 76(6):1888–1898

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Persson H (1979) Fine-root production, mortality and decomposition in forest ecosystems. Vegetatio 41:101–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson TR, Bell CW, Zak JC, Tissue DT (2009) Precipitation timing and magnitude differentially affect aboveground annual net primary productivity in three perennial species in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland. New Phytol 181:230–242

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosner B (1983) Percentage points for a generalized ESMD monay-outlier procedure. Technometrics 25:165–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sala OE, Parton WJ, Joyce LTA, Lauenroth WK (1988) Primary production of the central grassland region of the United States. Ecology 69:40–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sala OE, Gherardi LTA, Reichmann L, Jobbágy E, Peters D (2012) Legacies of precipitation fluctuations on primary production: theory and data synthesis. Philos Trans R Soc B 367:3125–3144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samson FB, Knopf FL, Ostlie WR (2004) Great plains ecosystems: past, present, and future. Wildl Soc Bull 32(1):6–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seastedt T, Knapp A (1993) Consequences of nonequilibrium resource availability across multiple time scales: the transient maxima hypothesis. Am Nat 141:621–633

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seneviratne SI, Pal JS, Eltahir EAB, Schar C (2002) Summer dryness in a warmer climate: a process study with a regional climate model. Clim Dyn 20:69–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simane B, Peacock JM, Struik PC (1993) Differences in developmental plasticity and growth rate among drought-resistant and susceptible cultivars of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum). Plant Soil 157:155–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sindhøj E, Hansson A-C, Andrén O, Kätterer T, Marissink M, Pettersson R (2000) Root dynamics in a semi-natural grassland in relation to atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment, soil water and shoot biomass. Plant Soil 223:253–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith MD, Knapp AK (2003) Dominant species maintain ecosystem function with non-random species loss. Ecol Lett 6:509–517

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stahle DW, Cleaveland MK (1988) Texas drought history reconstructed and analyzed from 1698 to 1980. J Clim 1:59–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Svoray T, Karnieli A (2011) Rainfall, topography and primary production relationships in a semiarid ecosystem. Ecohydrology 4:56–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weltzin JF et al (2003) Assessing the response of terrestrial ecosystems to potential changes in precipitation. Bioscience 53:941–952

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox KR, von Fischer JC, Muscha JM, Petersen MK, Knapp AK (2014) Contrasting above- and belowground sensitivity of three Great Plains grasslands to altered rainfall regimes. Glob Chang Biol 21:335–344

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wu Z, Dijkstra P, Koch GW, Peñuelas J, Hungate BA (2011) Responses of terrestrial ecosystems to temperature and precipitation change: a meta-analysis of experimental manipulation. Glob Chang Biol 17:927–942

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu X, Niu S, Sherry RA, Zhou X, Zhou J, Luo Y (2012) Interannual variability in responses of belowground net primary productivity (NPP) and NPP partitioning to long-term warming and clipping in a tallgrass prairie. Glob Chang Biol 18:1648–1656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu X, Sherry RA, Niu S, Li D, Luo Y (2013) Net primary productivity and rain-use efficiency as affected by warming, altered precipitation, and clipping in a mixed-grass prairie. Glob Chang Biol 19:2753–2764

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang H, DeWald LE, Kolb TE, Koepke DF (2011) Genetic variation in ecophysiological and survival responses to drought in two native grasses: Koeleria macrantha and Elymus elymoides. West N Am Nat 71(1):25–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou X, Fei S, Sherry R, Luo Y (2012) Root biomass dynamics under experimental warming and doubled precipitation in a tallgrass prairie. Ecosystems 15:542–554

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the many people who have worked at Konza Prairie Biological Station over the years that have made comparison to the long-term record possible, as well at the National Climate Data Center for providing such accessible climate records online. The assistance from the Kansas State Soil Testing Lab was also invaluable. In addition, a large thanks goes out to all those individuals who, through their time and labor, made the present experiment a success: J. O’Malley, L. Baur, M. Johnson, J. Carroll, A. Czerwinski, S. Mackenzie, K. Dennison, M. Merrill, W. Mowll, A. Hoffman, J. Gray, B. Leinwetter, F. Chaves Rodriguez, P. O’Neal, and J. Larkin. Finally, additional thanks go to J. Hoeting for assistance in analyzing our results. Support was provided by the National Science Foundation Konza Long-Term Ecological Research program.

Funding

This study was supported in part by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Konza Long-Term Ecological Research program and the NSF Macrosystems Biology Program’s support of the Extreme Drought in Grasslands Experiment (EDGE) project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center, 67826-A Hwy. 205, Burns, OR, 97720, USA

    Elsie M. Denton

  2. Department of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 1878 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    John D. Dietrich, Melinda D. Smith & Alan K. Knapp

Authors
  1. Elsie M. Denton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John D. Dietrich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Melinda D. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Alan K. Knapp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elsie M. Denton.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by Philip Fay.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 516 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Denton, E.M., Dietrich, J.D., Smith, M.D. et al. Drought timing differentially affects above- and belowground productivity in a mesic grassland. Plant Ecol 218, 317–328 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-016-0690-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-016-0690-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation