Productivity responses to altered rainfall patterns in a C4-dominated grassland.

Rainfall variability is a key driver of ecosystem structure and function in grasslands worldwide. Changes in rainfall patterns predicted by global climate models for the central United States are expected to cause lower and increasingly variable soil water availability, which may impact net primary production and plant species composition in native Great Plains grasslands. We experimentally altered the timing and quantity of growing season rainfall inputs by lengthening inter-rainfall dry intervals by 50%, reducing rainfall quantities by 30%, or both, compared to the ambient rainfall regime in a native tallgrass prairie ecosystem in northeastern Kansas. Over three growing seasons, increased rainfall variability...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Andropogon, Andropogon: growth & development, Biomass, Climate, Oecologia, All tags... Population Dynamics, Rain, Soil, Water, Fewer tags